Caught in a legal dispute with national governments on the salaries of its staff, the European Commission on Monday stressed that it was taking action to cut administration costs and urged other European Union institutions to do the same, dpa reported. The commission is defending before the European Court of Justice a 1.7-per-cent pay rise for its personnel, while EU governments argue that a freeze would be more appropriate in the current economic climate. The EU executive in Brussels, however, also plans to cut staff by 5 per cent over the next five years. It has also frozen administrative expenditure for 2012 and is extending the working week of its employees, from 37.5 to 40 hours. "We are asking other institutions to follow (our) model of restraint," EU Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski said, telling reporters he had sent a letter to the European Parliament and the EU Council, the secretariat of the bloc's member states. Lewandowski said the commission was achieving "deep savings" in missions and IT expenditure, to accommodate for extra administrative costs linked to Croatia's EU accession in 2013 and the expansion of EU Economy Commissioners Olli Rehn's powers.
