Editorial: Euro wages

NICE work if you can get it! On average a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) earns a massive eight thousand euros a month, that is 1,500 more than the Prime Minister in  Spain. An MEP earns a massive 2,000 euros more than a minister and 5,200 more than a normal Spanish member of parliament. No wonder there is a large waiting list to become a European Member of Parliament. So what do MEP do for this money? Well, that is a good question. They say that they work long and hard on our behalf and blame the media for not highlighting their hard work. And to think that you have a number of MEPs, including those from the United Kingdom Indepedence Party, who draw this very nice wage but are opposed to the European Union! I think the time has come for MEPs to make a greater effort to show just how the European Union works and what exactly is their workload. I know from an interview with Rosa Estaras, our local MEP, that they are in Brussels to fight our corner and the majority of European Union legislation affects everyone. But at a time of austerity when some European Union countries are still in recession, I think this large wage bill will be difficult to defend. One of the criticisms of the European Union  is how expensive it is to maintain. We need to cut costs and perhaps we could start with the amount of money that European Members of Parliament receive every month. It would certainly be a start.