|
| |
Hoaxes about European Civil Servants
A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth.
Hoaxes about European Civil Servants are often circulated as a weapon against
the European Union. Civil servants are scapegoats in this war waged by
eurosceptics. They are pictured as incompetent, no good, pampered, lazy,
arrogant, useless fat cats, parasites and so on and so forth.
This page debunks the most common allegations against the European Civil
Servants.
|
The hoax |
The truth |
| Free meals and drinks in work canteens. |
No such thing as a free meal or drink ! The
cashier waits for you at the end of the line. |
| Free access to a pool on the workplace. |
Sorry, no pool. Of course, there are the usual
sharks circling in the conference rooms. |
| Male EU officials get 6 free viagra tablets per
month. |
Are you kidding ? We don't need them. Seriously
: no distribution of any drug on the workplace. |
| Civil servants enjoy a luxury service car with
a driver. |
Not. For ecological reasons, we are even
invited to use a bicycle (not a rickshaw, mind you : no one to pedal for
us). |
| Civil servants have access to exclusive
tax-free shops. |
Not. Although some high-flying politicians
haunt our premises, we do not work in an airport. |
|
The hoax |
The truth |
| Officials do not pay income tax. |
They do. This progressive tax is complemented
with a flat 5.5% special levy. The income tax is deducted each month from
their salary slip, without any tax rebate. The revenue from this tax is
deducted from the national contributions to the EU budget, meaning that this
income tax benefits all EU states regardless the nationality of the official
or his country of residence. |
| Salaries make the most of the EU budget. |
The EU spends around 2% of its annual budget on
staff, administration and maintenance of its buildings. |
|
The hoax |
The truth |
| Gold-plated pensions with a short accumulation
time. |
Civil servants must accumulate 37 years of
service for a full pension (70 %), they cannot leave before their 63th
anniversary (if they do, their pension is reduced). In practice, as civil
servants are often recruited with a significant work experience, it means
that they cannot reach the 37 years of service, as they are recruited at the
age of 35 on average. |
| Officials get a pension of 19 per cent of their
final salary after just ten years’ service. |
A pension is served if a civil servant has
worked for a minimum of 10 years (thus accruing 19% pension rights), but of
course this pension is not paid before the age of 63 years and the
institution applies a reduction coefficient of 3,5% for each year before the
pensionable age. |
| Officials do not pay for their pensions. |
Each month, a percentage (11, 6 %) is deducted
from the salary. It is the highest pension contribution paid by staff in the
EU27. |
|
The hoax |
The truth |
| 42 days of leave a year. |
24 days of annual leave.
Officials from far-away places enjoy some additional days (délai de route)
for going back home. |
| 11 ‘non-working’ days when EU institutions are
closed on top of public holidays. |
None. EU institutions are closed on public
holidays in the country where they are established, with the exception of
Nov, 11th (Armistice) which is compensated by Europe Day. |
| Officials do not work on Friday afternoons. |
Wrong, Friday is a normal working day. |
|
The hoax |
The truth |
| European Civil servants are morons.
It is a little more than a hoax since the insult was
repeatedly addressed at a civil servant during a
BBC debate. |
This is pure hate speech used when all rational
arguments have failed. |
| A slide presentation sent by chain e-mails
accuses collectively the Members of the European Parliament of several
categories of wrongdoings. |
Fabricating statistics, in order to deceive, is
another way to peddle insults. |
|
The hoax |
The truth |
|
Civil servants are immune to
austerity measures taken in Europe |
On the contrary. A first reform in
2004 anticipated such measures (retirement age raised to 63, loss or
decrease of numerous allowances, slower careers, etc…). A new reform is in
preparation in 2012 : the retirement age is raised to 65, working time is
lengthened to 40h/week without salary increase, careers are shortened,
salaries for secretaries are decreased by 18%, a ‘solidarity tax’ is raised
to 6%, etc… |
|
Salaries of civil servants are
increased year after year. |
Salaries are indexed on inflation,
but the effect of the complex computation method leads to a constant loss of
purchasing power. If the rules are applied in December 2011, this loss will
be of 1;9%. This is a big ‘if’ as the Council denies this adaptation, in
violation of the law. |
Local footprint
In French, to prove that some of us speak this local language...
|
The hoax |
The truth |
| Les fonctionnaires ne payent rien
pour leur plaque minéralogique belge. |
La plaque commençant par 8 n'est
qu'une catégorie administrative qui n'induit aucun avantage (taxe de
circulation, contrôle technique, etc...) |
| Les fonctionnaires rendent
l'immobilier inaccessible aux autres en achetant ou louant à prix d'or. |
Bruxelles reste très en deçà des
prix immobiliers des grandes villes européennes. Beaucoup de fonctionnaires
habitent en région flamande. |
| Les fonctionnaires installés depuis
des années ne parlent pas un mot de français et encore moins de néerlandais. |
Les fonctionnaires doivent parler
au moins trois langues de l'UE (contrôlé par des examens) et beaucoup
parlent également les langues locales. |
| Des quartiers entiers de Bruxelles
ont été détruits, à cause de la présence européenne. |
La 'bruxellisation' (terme utilisé
en architecture pour caractériser la destruction du patrimoine
architectural) n'a pas attendu la création de l'UE comme le prouve le mot 'architek'
dans le patois des Marolles.
Le quartier dit 'européen' (qui n'occupe qu'une partie du Quartier
Leopold, le plus grand quartier d'affaires de la ville) reste très modeste
en surface par rapport aux quartiers d'affaires des grandes villes
européennes ou du 'Quartier Nord'. |
| Les fonctionnaires européens ont
des magasins internes aux prix très bas. |
Non. Il y a bien quelques points
presse et plus rarement d'autres boutiques dans la zone d'accueil de
certains bâtiments, mais aux prix normaux. La seule exception est le
Parlement européen qui accueille certaines boutiques moins courantes
(coiffeur...) mais là encore à des prix normaux. |
| Les fonctionnaires ne paient pas
les transports en commun. |
Mais si ! et les contrôleurs de la
STIB y veillent ... |
See also :
Rumours and Myths about the EU.
La Vigie 2012 : le site de
fact-checking sur l'Europe dans la campagne présidentielle
Il est possible d'informer sans caricaturer :
Le Soir 30/12/2011
Évolution du pouvoir d'achat des
fonctionnaires depuis 2004
[Top]
|
