EU boss’s £156,000 wage rise

THE next European Parliament president is set to get an EXTRA £113,016 to rent a home PLUS £43,704 for entertaining on TOP of the current £36,778-a-year living allowance.

The planned £156,720 pay rise, detailed in secret EU documents leaked to the News of the World, is to give the parliament president "more dignity".

This would make his total yearly income around £214,000.

The rise equates to £9,418 a month for rent and £3,642 for entertaining. The president is currently German politician Hans-Gert Pöttering.

His 2½-year term ends later this month and his successor is due to get the new allowances.

The rent benefit alone is enough to hire a seven-bedroom mansion with four bathrooms, a swimming pool, tennis court and extensive grounds in Brussels.

In the running for the job is British Lib Dem Graham Watson, who would trouser a £64,000-a-year wage, the £37k living allowance and extra £113k.

Elite

The leaked document, uncovered by the UK Independence Party, says the changes will put the president in the same pay bracket as the head of the European Commission, who is in charge of the EU's day-to-day running.

UKIP MEP Marta Andreasen said: "The political elite think these obscene sums should be thrown at their feet without any thought of the people that pay for their feather-bedded lifestyle - the taxpayers."

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