'Euro-MPs were handed an extraordinary £3,000 pay rise yesterday after EU judges ruled in favour of an inflation-busting increase for tens of thousands of Brussels officials. In a controversial ruling, the European Court of Justice rejected a bid by national governments to cancel a 3.7 per cent wage rise for MEPs and EU bureaucrats. More than 46,000 officials will now receive the pay rise in full, backdated to July 2009. Thursday, 25 November 2010 10:17 'The euro plunged further into crisis yesterday as investors sold off Spanish, Portuguese and Belgian government bonds in record numbers on renewed fears that those nations would follow Greece and Ireland into the financial emergency ward, undermining confidence in the single currency. The spreading contagion suggests that the markets now view the break-up of the euro as a realistic possibility, and that "shock and awe" efforts to shore up individual economies with huge bailouts have not succeeded in insulating their neighbours from infection. Spain, in particular, is regarded as being "too big to save". Should Spain eventually need assistance it would also imply a much larger UK bilateral loan than the £8bn offered to Ireland – perhaps £20bn or £30bn.Pay Rises All Round on EU Gravy Train
They will also be paid interest on the overdue sum.'
Friday, 26 November 2010
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