This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
What Makes Brussels More Equal Than Everyone Else?
Submitted by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,
Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad ran a little article recently that we’re surprised no other news organization picked up. It concerned a proposal in the European Parliament in which the parliamentarians got to vote on raising their own paycheck (always a good idea). The best thing about the story is that not everyone voted in favor.
Most did though. It much amused me to see that apparently it was Angela Merkel’s party, the German Christian Democrats, which was behind the proposal. Initially, they had even wanted double what they actually got. Here’s some numbers and details – and please forgive me for not being a math wizard -.
A Member of the European Parliament (MEP), according to the article, receives the following for their valiant and entirely selfless efforts at public service:
- Salary: €8000+
- Expenses: €4300
- A per diem allowance of €300 for every day a meeting is attended.
Per year that adds up to: €147.600 + €30,000 if 100 meetings are attended. Let’s say €180,000.
On top of that, the Parliament pays into MEPs pension funds, but we’ll leave that alone for now.
There are 751 MEPs, so total ‘salary’ costs are €135,180,000. But that’s just the start.
And we’re not yet adding translation costs, which apparently can add up to over €120,000 per day (!), or perhaps some €30-40 million per year.
Nor are we taking into account the estimated at least €200 million per year it takes to have the entire Parliament (MEPs, assistants, translators, employees, in total about 4000 people) move between Brussels and Strasbourg every month, an oddity that springs from a drawn-out power poker play between Germany and France. Do note: the constant move costs way more than all 751 MEP’s base salary + expenses.
No, the proposal discussed, concerns the added expense accounts MEPs receive for their assistants. At present, the amount involved is over €21,000 per month, and according to the people who receive it – and vote on raising it -, that’s not enough.
Typically, says the Dutch paper, an MEP has 3 assistants, all of whom get paid €2500 a month. They’re also in a special low Brussels income tax bracket. This means each MEP receives €252.000 per year in ‘assistant costs’, and spends €90,000 in salary costs, leaving €162,000 for food and lodging. Since there are 751 MEPs, the total adds up to €15,771,000 per month or €189,252,000 per year.
And they want more.
The original proposal called for another €3000 per month. Because some MEPs protested against this, it was reduced to €1500. Or €18,000 per year per MEP, times 751, a cool €13,518,000. Just in extra costs they voted in all by themselves.
There are many many stories about people living the high life once they get voted into the Brussels/Strasbourg traveling circus. The majority have lucrative jobs at home. They stay in swanky hotels. They collect per diems for meetings they don’t actually attend. They lay the basis for lucrative corporate careers after they exit the Parliament. It’s democracy in theory but not in practice.
Brussels/Strasbourg is no stranger to corruption, or whatever word you would want to to use to describe what goes on. Still, there are lots of MEPs who are completely on the up and up, and many who even pay back a lot of their ‘compensation’ into either the Parliament itself or into their own – national – part coffers, because they say the payments are exorbitant. But they don’t speak up. At least not outside of the confines of the Parliament itself.
But these are also – all of them put together – the people who uphold the EU policies versus Greece, where there are really many children who are hungry, and seniors who can’t get proper health care. Faced with a situation like that, one would think a proper parliament of a proper union wouldn’t dare raise its own expenses – which have to be paid by member countries’ taxpayers – before and until all children in the union are properly fed, and all grandmas properly taken care off by qualified medical personnel.
One would think. These are also the people responsible for the EU support that allows the Kiev army’s mass killings of its own people. And for the continuation of the anti-Russia and anti-Putin stance that’s become so popular across the western world. They may not be the daily executives of the circus, but they still are the responsible at the end of the day.
They are also the people who voted to cut down the budget for the Mediterranean refugee patrol missions, money saved that, if you want to take a cynical enough view, was freed to raise their own stipends. As thousands drown.
And so again we would like to raise that question: why would anyone, any country, want to have these people take their decisions for them? What would make you think when you live in Greece that these traveling circus clowns would be better at protecting and defending your interests than your own people, who live where you live, who see what you see on a daily basis?
It’s fine, and it’s perhaps even logical, at first glance, for Greeks and Italians to want to remain part of the euro. But when you look closer, you can’t avoid the notion that by being part of the euro, you give up the autonomy you also crave. And that the price you pay for being a part of the euro, and of the EU, makes you a serf to greater and richer interests that care about you about as much as they care about flies on their walls.
This one story about what MEPs vote themselves is but one example. Why not send us an example of where and how you feel Brussels protects your interests better than your own governments? We’re really curious to know. Because we don’t see it.
»
- 13198 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
But no one dared to tell you
http://www.relay-of-life.org/main.html
Must read book!
Because it's most famous relic is a little boy peeing? Perhaps?
Mannekan Pis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manneken_Pis
It's probably got more underground tunnles than any other city in Europe I'm guessing. Most..cough...givernment work gets done in the dark, didn't you know? ;-)
Again, for guitar people, something a little different?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhJjChT1nq4
Anybody seen a spoofing exposed, HFT article yet today? Interested people want to know.
Right on man, I dig the music & the philosophy. I'm a "Fender Bender" myself. I make a lot of noise that sometimes sounds like music.
EU is a perfect real life recreation of Orwell's fictitious Animal Farm. Can't wait for Ghordius to explain this as "progress"... or something.
Them Brussels sprouts are doing their best to spur inflation.
/s
What the fuck happend to Ghordius? He went fully troll retard. May have got fat paycheck from the assholes in Brussels and Frankfurt or what.
I doubt that payment is involved. He/she is very knowledgeable about the EU, especially the inside baseball stuff.
Maybe that is what happened, miss the forest because of the trees?
pods
trite, predictable, one worlder troll.
The problem is the mental disorder known as 'statism.' If one tries to coherently put it into practice, it's pure cognitive dissonance on steriods.
Hence all of the evil fucks who have no such reservations about what they inflict upon others.
meanwhile you seem to agree with the author, who is really much more of a "statist" then me. Oh, well, the truth of things is not something of interest for everybody
as usual, this author mixes the EU with the EUR, btw. suit yourself, drink your daily dose of "rah, rah" propaganda
Since I started freelancing I've been bringing in $90 bucks/h… I sit at home and i am doing my work from my laptop. Th? best thing is that i get more time to spent with my family and with my kids and in the same time i can earn enough to support them... You can do it too. Start here... www.globe-report.com
I had a bad boss once, too.
Yes, it's good to be a king or in the king's court as it were.
Amateurs, Congress has it set up where their pay goes up unless they vote against it and of course, it's only because otherwise it would be political.....
oligarchs taste like chicken
Mine tasted more like squid sushi
We can say the same thing about Congress...
They're all six foot four, and full of muscles
I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"
Probably the sprouts.
Or the beer.
Or fancy waffles.
You mean to tell me that the politicians are corrupt in Brussles too? No fucking way! GTFO!
wow Brussels is 25% Muslim?!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels#Religions
What makes a people decide to allow so much immigration as to guarantee that they will cease to exist as a majority people in their own homeland in 5 generations?
That is national illness, this bizaree suicidal "liberalism" of the borders - although, if the majority wants it, have at it...
but does the majority truly want it?
How else can you create an NWO (without undermining cultural identity)?
Hate to say it, but like here in the USA, westerners just aren't breeding profusely enough for the ponzi schemes to survive. They need to get some new breeding stock in. Hence the unfettered 3rd world immigration. The oligarchs don't give a fuck if a culture lives or dies, they are internationalists and we are merely statistics.
There are so many muslims in Belgium because the socialist party needs new voters : since Belgians no longer vote socialist, the socialist party is replacing the population. They do this by opening the spigots for every fundamentalistic illiterate moron they can find and promising them free housing, free medicare, free schooling, voting rights and free money. The Belgian government(s) all-in-all need 54% of the GNP just to function. Compare that with the 25% of the USA and you will understand the taxation is killing that country. Highest taxes in the world and lowest net wages/pensions. Direct taxation rates of 65% on workers' wages are the standard now ... and that does not include VAT, driving taxes, taxes on fuel, registration taxes on buying a house or taxation on inheritances. Welcome to the new communist paradise for illiterate muslim immigrants.
its not a question of wanting, its a question of needing. germany for example is dying out withour immigrants. only 1.4 children per woman, but they need 2.5 to pay the pensions, to wipe their asses and feed them, when they are old, cook, clean, and all and everything.
we need to learn to live together. stop your dividing talk. we dont learn anything like this.
E.Useless.
A more worthless bunch of Parasites cannot be found on this Planet.
I dunno, the EU parliament for Baltimore sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
INFLATION is good for governments. It's how they finance themselves when their citizens refuse to pay tax.
But INFLATION is "bad" for traders. INFLATION needs to be zero ... all the time and everywhere.
All we need to do is make it constitutional that government worker's pay never changes. That gives them an incentive to stop INFLATION ... which is trivial to do through proper management of the Medium of Exchange ... which they, the govenment, can take responsbile for.
Why would the bankers care if gov't employee pay never goes up?
Why would the bankers care if gov't employee pay never goes up?
They would not care. Bankers benefit from inflation. But traders like you and I do not.
And governments, if they can dictate anything, can dictate how the Medium of Exchange (MOE) is managed. Any properly managed MOE "will" guarantee zero INFLATION. The value of the money never changes ... anywhere.
With zero INFLATION, there is no reason to increase anyone's wages for delivering the same level of service.
Governments are all financed through INFLATION. By forcing government wages to be constant, there is a natural incentive for governments to guarantee zero INFLATION.
Banks are not needed to manage any MOE. In fact, with their profit motive, bankers will never be the most efficient MOE managers. They are not likely to lead you to that reality.
can we just fucking kill them all?
Fucking useless.
Their idea of democracy is "just do as you're told"
If they were paid what they're worth they'd have to pay us.
Fucking self-serving parasites pretty much to a man or woman - the only exception I can think of is Farage.
You could nuke Brussels or Strasbourg from orbit and be guaranteed 90% of the fuckers wouldn't be in attendence.
If I were in Brussels I squeeze each and every one of these motherfuckers. They gotta be doing something stupid with that money, right? Hookers, blow, jerking it to Obama golfing videos.
Btw, where's the guy from Brussels with the arms flailing about? You guys chase him away too?
There's nothing more expensive than a socialist!
When is Europe going to turn on the US?
Alreay has?
City and Vatican are the only hold-outs.
3 City States v The World
Who wins???
And MEP need to punch in but they don't need to punch out.
Well, Europe is being transformed via Brussels. The Bureauc(r)ats are only one symptom, where there is never a shortage of self-serving opportunists, willing to do almost anything to further their otherwise useless lives and careers. But looking at the Bigger Picture (that we must never lose sight of)...
Europe's transformation is on from a collection of Monocultures, to a homogenous Multi-Culture, that is completely open to all non-European or non-Traditional 'Customs & Norms'.
Taking the vision of the Zionist American-Swedish, pretending to speak for 'Jews' when she is actually a Sayanim of Global Zionists, she says...
"I think there is a resurgence of racism against Jews because at this point in time
Europe has not yet learned how to be multicultural. And I think Jews are going to be
part of the throes of that transformation, which must take place. Europe is not going to
be the monolithic society they once were in the last century. Jews are going to be at
the center of that. It’s a huge transformation for Europe to make. Europe is not going to be
the monolithic place it once was, they are now going into a multicultural mode and
Jews will be resented because of our leading role. But without that leading role
and without that transformation, Europe will not survive."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MFE0qAiofMQ
Be careful HOW you frame your Issues and Talking Points, and what words you use, lest you be netralized and marginalized instantly, by being branded with one of these labels: Racist, Nazi, Antisemite!
I urge everyone to frame their Argument in terms of Natural and Universal rights for any culture, race or nation to foster its values, customs and norms -- and that these apply to everyone, on a level playing field, and that no "special groups" be given a free pass or exempt status. By "special groups", I speak of course of Globalist Zionists who cloak themselves as 'Jews'. Note that not all Jews are Zionists, that many oppose them, and that not all Zionists are Jews.
Speaking of Double Standards, here is a clip that gives nice examples... "Israel’s Disgustingly Racist Behavior Towards Ethiopian Jews"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=j4lWyfOQm70
Now imagine if Barbara Specter's words are modified in the context of Ethiopian Jews in Israel...
"I think there is a resurgence of racism against black people because at this point in time
Israel has not yet learned how to be multicultural. And I think Africans are going to be
part of the throes of that transformation, which must take place. Israel is not going to
be the monolithic society they once were in the last century. Africans are going to be at
the center of that. It’s a huge transformation for Israel to make. Israel is not going to be
the monolithic place it once was, they are now going into a multicultural mode and
black Africans will be resented because of our leading role. But without that leading role
and without that transformation, Israel will not survive."
One could also modify the text, where Palestinians are used to replace Blacks in this text. Yeah, well, good luck with that in Israel.
The fact that she thinks Europe is monolithic tells you what a deluded cunt she is.
What she really means to say: we want to destroy any homeland that white people have by importing brown/black people...no more geographic seat of power for that race.
Thanks to Yitzhak Rabin's first government in the 70's recognizing them as Jews--never mind that many Ethiopian "Jews" had converted to Christianity generations before and none had any Jewish blood at all---Israel stupidly imported its own "diversity" from Ethiopia. Ask any white Israeli how expensive "cheap" Ethiopian labour has worked out for real Jewish Israelis.
When they're quite finished---it could take a while---suggest they see about freeing Yigal Amir.
More incidious deflation at work!
Bruxelles is bad for citizens but good for local politicians who can hide behind central decisions made by the EU (the blame game). And a limited number of the politicans gets the golden handshake and receives a mandate in Bruxelles. Why would a country like Lithuania join the EU although the vast majority of the citizens was against it? If you look at the compensation mentioned in the article above you know why.But the real cost to the citizens is not caused by the direct cost of the buerocratic and sclerotic (and unelected) apparatus but by their huge political mistakes (see Ukraine) and the silly rules they establish such as the power limitations for white goods which renders vacuum cleaners and other devices castrated.
you don't want to piss of Brussels -
or else they may send down Dominique Strauss Kahn to personally "regulate" you into submissions.
+
The EU will not be deterred from their plan to fix the economy by stealing eveyones money, giving it to the bankers and then throwing everone in prison.
I'm pretty sure that the author has his data wrong. These outragous sums and this immoral behavior is most like decribing the U.S. Congress.
Well, the 10,000-odd people who actually count for anything in the Fourth Reich clearly consider the trained seals in Brussels to be worth every eurocent. When the MEPs ask for raises, they aren't shitcanned and their jobs outsourced to China.
Everyone else, you mean? If Raul thinks anybody cares if proles live or die, it's a wonder he's allowed out without his mother.
The EU parliament is just a rubber stamp for the executive and political theatre for the peasants so they think the EU is democratic.
Goldman Sachs’ reported spending on EU lobbying rises 14-fold
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/725f92f6-edbc-11e4-987e-00144feab7de.html#ixzz3Ye7tVEWX The US investment bank spent between €700,000 and €799,000 on lobbying in Brussels in 2014, according to its entry in the European Commission’s transparency register. This compares with the estimated €50,000 it says it spent in 2013 on lobbying in Brussels. The rules also sparked a sharp increase in the lobbying expenses reported by UBS. The Swiss bank’s spending jumped from less than €100,000 in 2013 to €1.7m in 2014. Deutsche Bank said it spent almost €2m lobbying EU institutions in 2013, rising to €4m in 2014, according to its latest filing.EU parliament wants to increase compensation by 1,500 euros
22 April 2015, by Frans Boogaard (Algemeen Dagblad)
(Google trans from Dutch) http://tinyurl.com/n9f7nlc
ORG http://www.ad.nl/ad/nl/1012/Nederland/article/detail/3973229/2015/04/22/Parlement-EU-wil-vergoeding-verhogen-met-1-500-euro.dhtml