Scandalous Pensions for European Parliamentarians

While the US Congress is infamous for its taxpayer‐​subsidized perks, US lawmakers are amateurs compared to the scammers in Brussels. Members of the European Parliament have a lavish taxpayer‐​financed retirement scheme that enables them to get $2 of taxpayer money for every $1 they put into their pension fund. But this immense perk does not even require them to necessarily use their own money. As the UK‐​based Telegraph reports, some MEPs – perhaps most MEPs – use office administrative funds:

The European Parliament’s bureau, the body that oversees the assembly’s administration, has voted to prevent publication of a list naming the 475 MEPs who benefit from a pension scheme worth more than £1,400 a month to Euro‐​MPs with the taxpayer matching every euro personally contributed with two from the public purse. Payments are controversial because, for “administrative reasons”, the MEP’s personal contributions are taken automatically from office expenses. No one checks whether the politician actually pays anything into the fund from his own salary. Many in Brussels believe that a “large proportion” of Euro‐​MPs are using their office payments to get a free second pension on top of national schemes.