More pay for EU officials immoral

There is a vigorous debate in the EU at present about raising the salaries of more than 35,000 EU officials. The EU official's demands for more pay are excessive in these times of crisis, the daily Der Kurier writes: "Before fundamentally criticising these demands one factor should be taken into account: the entrance examination is very difficult, with only 30 out of 3,000 applicants for the Concours [the EU recruitment competition for selecting staff] getting a job; they must have perfect command of English and French plus another EU language. The job profile and that salaries for EU bureaucracy meet international standards. So far, so good. But in times of crisis it is greedy to insist on the legally stipulated annual salary adjustment, which has been calculated at 3.7 percent for 2010. EU officials have a secure job and an adequate income. It's not about complying with the law, it's about the optics and certain moral standards."

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