-:Undertaker:-
28-09-2010, 12:43 AM
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8023549/Lord-Mandelson-still-paid-8600-a-month-by-EU.html
Lord Mandelson still paid £8,600 a month by EU
Lord Mandelson is still paid £8,600 a month by the EU despite leaving his Brussels post two years ago and earning hundreds of thousands in royalties from his memoir, it has emerged.
After leaving his Brussels job in Oct 2008, the Labour peer is still receiving a "transitional allowance" of £103,465 a year, which is funded by the taxpayer. The payment of £8,622 (€10,139) a month is set at 50 per cent of his former salary as European trade commissioner, a stipend paid at low rates of "community tax". Despite being only 56 and highly employable, Lord Mandelson is entitled to claim the allowance until Oct 2011.
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01724/Mandelson_1724652c.jpg
According to the House of Lords register of interests, dated Sept 20, the allowance and royalties from his new Labour memoir, The Third Man, are sole sources of income. Serialisation rights for the book are said to have been £400,000 alone. He is also entitled to claim a £86.50 daily subsistence when he attends the Lords. "The aim of this system is to ease their return to the labour market, to maintain their independence after their time as commissioner," said a Brussels spokesman. "We want to help them so they don't have to jump on every job offer on the way." The allowance is only stopped if Lord Mandelson gets a new job at a salary grade above his former Brussels rate of over £205,000 a year.
Nigel Farage, the European leader of Ukip, said: "Lord Mandelson sits on his sleek backside and continues to sponge up over £100,000 in euro dole. Why doesn't he do something useful for once and get a real job?" The benefit, worth over 30 times more than Jobseekers Allowance, is paid for three years, six times longer that the full rate of unemployment benefit and it continues to be paid at reduced rates even if former commissioners get new jobs.
There is a growing European row over the payments after it emerged this week that 17 former commissioners, including Lord Mandelson, are enjoying large payouts even though many have taken up lucrative lobbying contracts, become MEPs or are in receipt of book royalties. Ellwood and Atfield, a recruitment consultancy in Brussels and London, said that an individual of Lord Mandelson's calibre and reputation would not have any problems finding well paid work similar to the salary, said to be over £2 million a year, earned by Tony Blair from the JP Morgan bank. "I would think that a big global corporate would snap him up," said Ben Atfield, a founder partner at the consultancy. "Blair might be the Man United but Mandelson is still in the Premier League."
Lord Mandelson has been linked to a string of high-profile jobs, such as the chairman of BP. The Labour peer, while Business Secretary until the election in June, continued to draw £80,000 or more from the EU – the difference between his previous salary in Brussels and his Cabinet pay packet – meaning that he earned more than Gordon Brown, as Prime Minister. "It beggars belief that Lord Mandelson should be entitled to receive hugely generous EU payoffs, first while in government and now when he's enjoying a comfortable life on the media circuit," said Stephen Booth, at Open Europe. "This is a slap in the face for taxpayers, particularly in these tough economic times. If Lord Mandelson was principled, he would have turned down these allowances." Two former commissioners, Charlie McCreevy, now Ryanair board member and Joe Borg, a Maltese politician who now works for a PR consultancy, still collect over €11,000 per month from the EU.
Lord Mandelson's office was not available for comment on Friday.Mandelson. A typical champagne socialist.
The EU anyway, well it is not known as the world's biggest gravytrain for nothing now is it, the prime example including the unelected EU President Herman Van Rompuy who is on more than US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron. It is incredibly that, at a time when national budgets are being cut back - the EU budget simply rises and rises (yes, the Tories had no problem with this!). At a time when pensions across Europe are in crisis due to the ageing of Europe, the elite in both national governments and the EU continue to recieve pensions and salaries over their lifetimes which are comparable to that of footballers. I have heard so before, that apparently if you work in the EU you do not have to pay the same tax rate as everybody else does - who said the bourgeoisie are no longer about?
For how much longer are the British people going to take being forced to pay for people such as Mandelson?
Lord Mandelson still paid £8,600 a month by EU
Lord Mandelson is still paid £8,600 a month by the EU despite leaving his Brussels post two years ago and earning hundreds of thousands in royalties from his memoir, it has emerged.
After leaving his Brussels job in Oct 2008, the Labour peer is still receiving a "transitional allowance" of £103,465 a year, which is funded by the taxpayer. The payment of £8,622 (€10,139) a month is set at 50 per cent of his former salary as European trade commissioner, a stipend paid at low rates of "community tax". Despite being only 56 and highly employable, Lord Mandelson is entitled to claim the allowance until Oct 2011.
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01724/Mandelson_1724652c.jpg
According to the House of Lords register of interests, dated Sept 20, the allowance and royalties from his new Labour memoir, The Third Man, are sole sources of income. Serialisation rights for the book are said to have been £400,000 alone. He is also entitled to claim a £86.50 daily subsistence when he attends the Lords. "The aim of this system is to ease their return to the labour market, to maintain their independence after their time as commissioner," said a Brussels spokesman. "We want to help them so they don't have to jump on every job offer on the way." The allowance is only stopped if Lord Mandelson gets a new job at a salary grade above his former Brussels rate of over £205,000 a year.
Nigel Farage, the European leader of Ukip, said: "Lord Mandelson sits on his sleek backside and continues to sponge up over £100,000 in euro dole. Why doesn't he do something useful for once and get a real job?" The benefit, worth over 30 times more than Jobseekers Allowance, is paid for three years, six times longer that the full rate of unemployment benefit and it continues to be paid at reduced rates even if former commissioners get new jobs.
There is a growing European row over the payments after it emerged this week that 17 former commissioners, including Lord Mandelson, are enjoying large payouts even though many have taken up lucrative lobbying contracts, become MEPs or are in receipt of book royalties. Ellwood and Atfield, a recruitment consultancy in Brussels and London, said that an individual of Lord Mandelson's calibre and reputation would not have any problems finding well paid work similar to the salary, said to be over £2 million a year, earned by Tony Blair from the JP Morgan bank. "I would think that a big global corporate would snap him up," said Ben Atfield, a founder partner at the consultancy. "Blair might be the Man United but Mandelson is still in the Premier League."
Lord Mandelson has been linked to a string of high-profile jobs, such as the chairman of BP. The Labour peer, while Business Secretary until the election in June, continued to draw £80,000 or more from the EU – the difference between his previous salary in Brussels and his Cabinet pay packet – meaning that he earned more than Gordon Brown, as Prime Minister. "It beggars belief that Lord Mandelson should be entitled to receive hugely generous EU payoffs, first while in government and now when he's enjoying a comfortable life on the media circuit," said Stephen Booth, at Open Europe. "This is a slap in the face for taxpayers, particularly in these tough economic times. If Lord Mandelson was principled, he would have turned down these allowances." Two former commissioners, Charlie McCreevy, now Ryanair board member and Joe Borg, a Maltese politician who now works for a PR consultancy, still collect over €11,000 per month from the EU.
Lord Mandelson's office was not available for comment on Friday.Mandelson. A typical champagne socialist.
The EU anyway, well it is not known as the world's biggest gravytrain for nothing now is it, the prime example including the unelected EU President Herman Van Rompuy who is on more than US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron. It is incredibly that, at a time when national budgets are being cut back - the EU budget simply rises and rises (yes, the Tories had no problem with this!). At a time when pensions across Europe are in crisis due to the ageing of Europe, the elite in both national governments and the EU continue to recieve pensions and salaries over their lifetimes which are comparable to that of footballers. I have heard so before, that apparently if you work in the EU you do not have to pay the same tax rate as everybody else does - who said the bourgeoisie are no longer about?
For how much longer are the British people going to take being forced to pay for people such as Mandelson?