European Commission calls on other EU institutions to cut costs

Jan 23, 2012, 13:25 GMT

Brussels - Caught in a legal dispute with national governments on the salaries of its staff, the European Commission on Monday stressed that it was taking action to cut administration costs and urged other European Union institutions to do the same.

The commission is defending before the European Court of Justice a 1.7-per-cent pay rise for its personnel, while EU governments argue that a freeze would be more appropriate in the current economic climate.

The EU executive in Brussels, however, also plans to cut staff by 5 per cent over the next five years. It has also frozen administrative expenditure for 2012 and is extending the working week of its employees, from 37.5 to 40 hours.

'We are asking other institutions to follow (our) model of restraint,' EU Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski said, telling reporters he had sent a letter to the European Parliament and the EU Council, the secretariat of the bloc's member states.

Lewandowski said the commission was achieving 'deep savings' in missions and IT expenditure, to accommodate for extra administrative costs linked to Croatia's EU accession in 2013 and the expansion of EU Economy Commissioners Olli Rehn's powers.

At the same time, the Polish commissioner complained about governments' insistence on paring down rises in the EU's annual budget. This year's was increased by 1.86 per cent, while the commission had asked for a 5-per-cent raise.

Last year, the commission only managed to settle 9 out of 15 million euros (19.5 million dollars) in outstanding bills, with the rest carried over to 2012, Lewandowski said. By the end of the current year 'it could be that we have a much bigger shortage,' he warned.