The UK voters don't get to choose who the PM of the country is either. Or the UN representative Its not like this is an unusual practise.
Oh yeah I remember now https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/09/labour-tories-lib-dems-block-juncker
funny part of that guardian link I posted is that it was from June 2014 and this part stood out, 2014 remember As Labour joined the Tories and Liberal Democrats in rejecting Juncker's candidacy, Cameron claimed the attempt by the European parliament to install the former Luxembourg prime minister amounted to a power grab "through the back door". He called for a "consensual candidate" to be agreed in talks with Angela Merkel and his Swedish and Dutch counterparts – Fredrik Reinfeldt and Mark Rutte – at the Swedish prime minister's summer home in Harpsund. Reinfeldt, one of Cameron's closest allies in the European Union, said it was vital that the UK remained a member of the EU. Der Spiegel reported last week that Cameron had told Merkel at the recent EU summit Britain would be more likely to leave if Juncker were appointed European commission president. "It is of the utmost interest and importance to the rest of Europe that Britain stays in the EU," the Swedish prime minister said at the Harpsund meeting. The four EU leaders all have deep reservations about Juncker, a veteran EU fixer, who is seen by No 10 as embodying an out-of-touch EU elite. They are also uneasy at the way in which the European parliament devised the Spitzenkandidaten (lead candidate) system in which the main pan-European groups in the parliament nominated a candidate to head the European commission. In 2014 they were warning junker was part of the out of touch eu elite being slid in through the back door and it could lead to the U.K. leaving. It seems when it comes to listening to make the eu better and cure its faults, the eu continue to have their hearing aids out
Sorry if I am being slow here, Each country puts forward a candidate for a commissioners post and then all the MEPs vote for the commissioners ?
Hi Alan, here's the long version with all the detail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Commission
I think each country has a commissioner put forward by there own country, the commissioners then vote for the top jobs, such as Tusk, Junker and the others, other than our representatives vote we have no say.
Looks like he's one of them. Composition of theCommissioners President The first Vice-President The Vice‑President and High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security Policy 4 Vice-Presidents 21 Commissioners
The commissioners also get upto 65% of their pay (depending on years service) for a period of 3 years after they have left the roll even if they have another job they have literally left then slid in from minute one, this is called transitional pay When tusk was considering running for his current role as president of the european commission, he was prime minister of Poland earning around £48k in 2014. the jump from Polish prime minister to eu commissioner has his pay at 32,700 euros plus expenses, a month.
I need to look at someting else before I explode I think. MEPs earn €8,484 There are 751 of them. That's €6,371,484 a month add that to the €626,277 a month for the commissioners €6,997,761 a month. Not even going to consider their expenses.
Bearing in mind the expenses scandal in the U.K. parliament that many, rightly so were outraged, we had accountability enforced However, in september of only last year, the mep's themselves voted to not provide any accountability or records for their 4,416 euro expenses a MONTH. A transparency group took the matter to an eu court and the court decided that the mep's privacy was more important than accountability, this enraged some meps who said that the eu is not listening when it comes to accountability read if you wish https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/25/mep-expenses-eu-court-ruling
The average UK MP claims between £150k and £200k some as high as £240k a year, most of which is claimed for staff wages.
Thank you, that softens the blow somewhat. But can’t help thinking they’re earning about 7k a month, compared to what doctors nurses firemen police etc etc earn.
