Euro-zone finance ministers criticized corporate bonuses and questioned Europe's agriculture policies in face of inflation and slowing growth. Euro-zone finance ministers said it's inappropriate for top managers to rake in big bonuses at a time when ordinary Europeans are struggling to make ends meet "It is no longer acceptable to have situations whereby certain top managers have excessive salaries and also benefit from golden parachutes, payments which have no relationship to their performance," said Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who chaired the ministerial meeting of the 15 countries sharing the euro currency on Tuesday, May 13. Juncker said ministers were considering hiking taxes to limit what he dubbed a "scandal" and "social scourge." Any move aimed at curbing salaries or bonuses granted to captains of industry is likely to be met with strong resistance by EU member states such as Britain, which fears that it might pose a threat to the City of London by pushing businesses to relocate. British diplomats said that they believed there was "zero appetite" within the EU for such initiatives.
Euro-zone finance ministers said it's inappropriate for top managers to rake in big bonuses at a time when ordinary Europeans are struggling to make ends meet
"It is no longer acceptable to have situations whereby certain top managers have excessive salaries and also benefit from golden parachutes, payments which have no relationship to their performance," said Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who chaired the ministerial meeting of the 15 countries sharing the euro currency on Tuesday, May 13.
Juncker said ministers were considering hiking taxes to limit what he dubbed a "scandal" and "social scourge."
Any move aimed at curbing salaries or bonuses granted to captains of industry is likely to be met with strong resistance by EU member states such as Britain, which fears that it might pose a threat to the City of London by pushing businesses to relocate.
British diplomats said that they believed there was "zero appetite" within the EU for such initiatives.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - With inflationary pressure in the eurozone heating up, its economic chiefs have intensified calls on trade unions to avoid demands for wage increases and suggested the EU should consider measures to discourage "scandalous" financial bonuses for departing executives. "We remain on our guard as regards inflationary developments. It's too high and we don't think it is a good thing," said Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the 15-strong eurogroup, meeting on Tuesday (13 May), on the eve of today's session of all EU finance ministers. The annual level of consumer price gains across the single currency area slowed to 3.3 percent in April from 3.6 percent in March, according to Eurostat, the EU's statistical office. The European Commission has recently raised its forecast for eurozone inflation this year to 3.2 percent, 0.6 percentage points more than it predicted in February. Energy and food prices remain the key external factors influencing the price hikes but experts suggest that potential salary raises in reaction to these developments would make things worse for the European economy.
Er...what happened to "we have to pay a competitive, world market salary"?
Doesn't the market dictate that those poor benighted companies from pay-restricted countries would simply go under if they couldn't pay millions for executive failure?
Any move aimed at curbing salaries or bonuses granted to captains of industry
Also it's interesting that rises in management income do not constitute the dreaded "wage inflation".
Funny, that. "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
Meanwhile the poor and powerless need the incentive of benefit or wage cuts to get them out of bed.
When you're rich, it's a reward for being rich.
