Daniel Hannan is a writer and journalist, and has
been Conservative MEP for South East England since 1999. He has written eight
books on European policy, speaks French and Spanish and is author of
The Plan: Twelve months to renew Britain
How the government pays to lobby itself
Posted on Dec 29, 2008 at 11:10:40
Tags: Douglas Carswell , executive agencies , Nick Hurd , police authorities , Quangos , tangos
Quangos aren't quasi-autonomous any more. They've broken free of ministerial control and become Taxpayer-funded Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisations: Tangos.
I was chatting to an old friend over the weekend, and happened to mention the shortcomings of one of the most inept of all our executive bodies. My friend is not normally a man to voice strong political opinions, but he sprang immediately to the defence of this hapless agency, insisting that the situation before its creation had been far worse. Suddenly the penny dropped: my friend is a lobbyist, and the agency is paying him to conduct its PR.
Pause, for a moment, to consider how outrageous this is. Bodies set up by the government, but operationally independent, are using taxpayers' money to lobby for more taxpayers' money.
New research from Open Europe finds that EU Commissioners will take home more than £1 million each on leaving office
New research from Open Europe has found that European Commissioners leaving office this year could receive more than £1 million in pension payments, 'transitional' payments and 'resettlement' allowances.
Page 2 of the News of the World reported that the longest serving Commissioners, Commission Vice-Presidents and Communications Commissioner Margot Wallstrom and Industry Commissioner Gunter Verheugen, will receive the largest amounts with pension funds worth almost £1.8 million. The article quoted Open Europe Director Lorraine Mullally arguing that, "While taxpayers struggle in the recession and worry about losing jobs, their money is going to pamper grossly overpaid eurocrats with eye-watering salaries. It's outrageous this team of unelected Brussels civil servants walk away with these vast sums. This is totally unjustified."
The Telegraph reported that even UK Commissioner Catherine Ashton who replaced Lord Mandelson, and who has been in the job for less than a year will qualify for three-years of transitional allowances, worth over £89,000 a year, and that the pension costs alone of the five-year Barroso Commission amount to more than £33 million.
The article quotes Open Europe' Sarah Gaskell saying that, "Even Sir Fred Goodwin would be impressed at the size of the pensions that Commissioners are walking away with...Taxpayers around Europe, whose pensions have been swallowed up in the recession, will rightly question why they are footing such an enormous bill for a handful of remote officials who they never voted for in the first place."
Slovenian daily Dnevnik, Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter and Norwegian news website N24 also reported the story. Swedish Television also featured the findings.
Dnevnik Telegraph News of the World N24 Dagens Nyheter Swedish Television Open Europe press release