Last month, in her reply [1] to President Emanuel Macron’s address Pour une Renaissance européenne [2] (also in English at the site), CDU’s leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (AKK) mentioned the need to end anachronisms and called for taxation of EU officials… This prompted an immediate reaction from Commissioner Oettinger [3] who came out in the defence of staff and reminded Mrs. AKK that EU officials DO PAY taxes and, on top of it, they also pay a Special Solidarity Levy [4] of 6 to 7%.
While, at Generation 2004, we appreciated Mr. Oettinger’s quick response and thanked him for doing so [5] (EN version [6]), in our thank you letter we also reminded him that, although on top of our salary taxation we all pay a 6 to 7% Special Solidarity Levy, this levy is not paid by pensioners, who in many cases receive higher pensions than the salaries of lower grades and Contract Agent colleagues in active-service. So much for solidarity!
We also took the chance to highlight that true solidarity could have been achieved by applying the levy to pensioners, which would have allowed a lower rate to be applied to everyone, to the benefit of those with lower salaries!