The EU Farewell Package Hits the Jackpot

by Peter Oborne (Link)

In the real world inhabited by ordinary voters and taxpayers, severance payments are made only to employees who are sacked or laid off unfairly or against their will.

However, in the world of EU politics, the compensation system works very differently.

Take the case of Peter Mandelson, who quit as European Commissioner at a moment's notice to take a well-paid job in the British Cabinet.

Far from losing out financially, his reward is a farewell package worth approximately £1million. I have discovered that his successor, Baroness Ashton, whose tenure will be for less than a year, is set to benefit financially in even more spectacular fashion.

She will be paid almost £200,000. After she leaves her post, she will be entitled to a further £250,000 of so-called 'transitional payments' spread over three years.

Her single year of service will also furnish her with an annual pension of approximately £8,000 a year - that's more than twice what a British pensioner gets from the state after working all their life.

Taking into account other freebies, Baroness Ashton (the former leader of the House of Lords) has hit the jackpot with a total package worth the best part of three-quarters of a million pounds.

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Not bad for a year's 'work'!