Brussels - Hostilities against eurocrats

BRUSSELS - Staff unions have written to Herman Van Rompuy, the EU president, after stickers of a hanging official were found with the slogan "Eurocrate, sers-toi de ta cravate" or "Eurocrat, make use of your tie".

Cars with special licence plates for EU officials have been targeted and civil servants commuting to work in Schuman euro quarter of Brussels have been harassed by activists, thought to be anarchists.

 "It is now obvious that the next steps will be physical injuries," said the letter from Union Syndicale, Federation of European Civil Servants and Renouveau & Démocratie.

The EU officials have blamed negotiations demanded by national governments to cut some of their legendary perks for "hasty, ill-informed generalisations which can later be easily exploited by populist associations whose only motive is to make the European civil service a scapegoat".

According to the European Voice, a weekly Brussels newspaper, other "anti-Eurocrat" stickers and flyers have been left on cars at commuter railway stations on the outskirts of Brussels. In April a group of 10 protesters subjected commuting civil servants to "physical intimidation and verbal abuse" before spray-painting an underground station with the slogan "eurocrats de merde".

Anonymous leaflets, in French, were distributed complaining about the austerity regime being imposed by the EU on many eurozone countries and the displacement of native Brussels residents by expanding EU offices. "Staff have always been resented to a certain extent but there has been a step change in hostility since the crisis has pushed the EU into the political frontline," said an EU official. National governments, including Britain, have demanded the end of perks, including an expat allowance that allows two thirds of EU officials an extra 16 per cent on top of their salary for their entire working life at a cost of £200 million a year.



The complete letter of the unions :
http://www.slideshare.net/redacsel/la-lettre-complte-herman-van-rompuy-et-jos-manuel-barroso?ref=http://www.lesoir.be/actualite/monde/2012-05-03/eurocrate-sers-toi-de-ta-cravate-choque-a-bruxelles-913466.php

An example of a leaflet distributed:
http://www.slideshare.net/redacsel/un-tract-antieurocrate?ref=http://www.lesoir.be/actualite/monde/2012-05-03/eurocrate-sers-toi-de-ta-cravate-choque-a-bruxelles-913466.php

2/5/2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9243079/Car-stickers-threatening-to-hang-Eurocrats-circulate-in-Brussels.html