Brussels Wants 2,500 More Officials — Merz and Scandinavia Say No

Two thousand five hundred new desks in Brussels. That is what the European Commission has written into its proposal for the next seven-year EU budget, 2028 to 2034, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on 15 October, on the eve of the EU summit where the hard bargaining began.

The posts would be spread across the European Parliament, the Commission, the Council and some agencies. How exactly is still open, the Commission says; Berlin believes almost half would go to the Commission. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has drawn a red line. In a joint letter at the end of September, he and the heads of government of the Netherlands, Austria and the Scandinavian EU states wrote that more EU staff while national governments shrink theirs is out of step with the times.

“Eine Aufstockung des Personalbestands in den EU-Institutionen zu einer Zeit, in der wir in unseren eigenen Verwaltungen Personal abbauen, ist nicht zeitgemäß.”

“Increasing staff numbers in the EU institutions at a time when we are cutting staff in our own administrations is out of step with the times.”

— Joint letter from Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the heads of government of the Netherlands, Austria and the Scandinavian EU states, end of September

“We will not accept that”

Merz had already said in July that it was “unacceptable that 2,500 new positions are now to be created for the European institutions”, pointing out that Germany is cutting its own federal staff by 8 percent by 2029. The Irish Council presidency’s compromise budget, still worth around €1.83 trillion according to Focus, trims EU administrative spending by 8.8 percent compared with the Commission’s request. If that holds, FAZ writes, there will be no room left for the 2,500 posts. Inside the Commission, officials counter that the cut equals four times the cost of the new jobs.

German AfD MEP Christine Anderson put it more bluntly on X: the EU “just can’t get enough”. EU leaders hope to clear the biggest disputes this autumn and want a political deal by the December summit on 17–18 December.