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The EU may be spending less, but the cost of running it is rising
欧盟也许会削减开支，但是运营成本在增加
THE European Union is on the verge of cutting its spending for the first time ever. A 3% cut in real terms will save 34 billion ($47 billion) from the seven-year budget framework for 2014-20. For Britain’s David Cameron, who pressed the hardest for a cut, this is a triumph. But every silver lining has a cloud: EU spending on administration will still rise, by a total of 8% in real terms.
欧盟是第一次面临削减开支。按实值计算，削减3%意味着从7年期(2014-2020年)的预算框架中节省340亿欧元(合470亿美元)。对于坚决支持削减政策的英国首相大卫·卡梅伦来说，这算是一大胜利。但并非事事如人愿：欧盟的行政费用仍将增加，按实值计算总计会达到八个百分点。
The sums involved are relatively small: the total budget is only 1% of EU GDP, and just 6% of this goes on administration. Yet it has political resonance. Taxpayers do not like paying for civil servants at the best of times. Spending more on Brussels bureaucrats at a time of deep recession and high unemployment is even harder to swallow.
所涉及的金额只是相对较小的一部分：整体预算是只占欧盟GDP的1%，可预算的6%会用于行政开支。然而这有着政治上的共鸣。即使是在最好的时代，纳税人也不愿意给公务员买单。而在经济严重衰退和高失业率的状况下，多给布鲁塞尔官员任何一分钱都比以往时候更难让民众接受。
A European Commission spokesman likens EU governments to a restaurant customer who wants more, better and cheaper food. But the EU institutions could do more and better for less. There is plenty of fat to trim: generous tax breaks, far higher average pay than in national governments and benefits that include a 16% expat top-up and payment for children’s education until they are 26.
欧盟委员会一发言人将欧盟政府比作餐馆的食客，他们想要更多品质更好的食物，却希望价格更便宜。但是欧盟机构可以做到这一点。因为有很多地方可以“瘦身”：慷慨地减免所得税，远比国家政府高的平均工资水平以及优渥的福利待遇，这里的福利包括在国外工作的人追加16%的补贴，对欧盟官员子女的教育津贴的年限延长至26岁。
A rare chance to cut back was missed when staff regulations were renegotiated this year. Barring a few concessions, such as a 5% headcount cut by 2017 and a rise in the pension age to 66, reforms were few. Hardly any change was made to allowances, or to automatic promotions and salary rises, and there was no big pension reform, even though this is a growing concern for Brussels as well as for national governments.
今年人事条例再次协商的时候，错失了一次难得的削减开支的机会。会议上做出了一些小让步，比如：到2017年为止，裁员5%以及将退休年龄提至66岁，但除此之外，几乎没有什么改革。补贴或是自动升职和加薪方面几乎没有变动，而且官员的养老金方面也无大改革，无论是在欧盟还是各国政府，这方面的改革都是备受关注。
Trimming running costs is something most EU governments have been doing assiduously. Spain cut pay by 5% in 2010; Ireland did even more, cutting it by 5-15%. In Britain, as part of plans to cut costs by a third by 2015, the central government pay-bill was cut by6.3% in real terms between 2010-2013. Yet EU salaries have continued to rise in the past four years.
削减运营成本是大部分欧盟政府一直努力在做的事。2010年西班牙削减了5%的支出;爱尔兰削减的更多，比例高达5%-15%。作为计划的一部分，英国截至2015年将开支降低三分之一，2010-2013年的政府工资单按实值计算已经削减了6.3%。但是过去四年，欧盟官员的薪金一直在增加。
If institutions that so often propose reforms do little at home, it gives less hope for changes in costlier policies. The Brussels defence is that administrative spending is “tiny”, so reducing it will make little difference. But the appearance of indulgence weakens the EU’s reputation at a time when most polls show citizens everywhere have lost faith in it.
假如机构经常提议改革却不从自身做起的话，那么想对成本更高的政策做出变革的希望会更加渺茫。布鲁塞尔的官员辩解称，行政支出是“很小”的一部分，所以削减它并不会造成什么差别。但是，恣意放纵的表相一度弱化了欧盟的声誉，许多的民调显示各地的市民们都对欧盟失去了信心。
Later this month, European parliamentarians and their entourages are planning to travel to Strasbourg to vote through the rise in the EU’s administration budget. The 200mannualcost of this travelling circus is hardly huge, but most European taxpayers still see it for the incomprehensible extravagance it is.
本月下旬，欧洲议会议员和他们的随行者正在计划前往斯塔拉斯堡，就提高欧盟行政预算进行投票表决。每年用于巡回访问的200亿欧元的费用并不算是个大数目，但是许多欧洲纳税人仍然将其视做无法理喻的奢侈消费。