The Brief – Manfred Weber’s wages of sin

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It’s a good thing Manfred Weber is a devout Catholic. For should the European Union collapse in the coming years (an outcome one can’t rule out amid the rising swell of the populist right and left), he will have plenty to confess.

The latest details about Weber’s dual salary, revealed by Euractiv, display that while Weber might have trained to be an environmental engineer, his true calling is financial engineering. Last summer he quietly arranged a 17% annual raise on his second salary for his role as head of the European People’s Party. That puts his combined earnings (at least what is public) for his office at the party and as an MEP at almost €330,000, just shy of what the US president earns.

It’s good work if you can receive it. Unfortunately, it’s also extremely corrosive to Europe’s political culture. For many regular Europeans, the mention of “Brussels” evokes images the overpaid political hack gaming the system. Weber, whose salary likely puts him in the top 0.1% of European earners, has become their poster boy.

There’s a simple explanation for Weber’s greed: he considers he can receive away with it. Back in his native Germany, no senior politician could receive away with such double dipping. Neither Chancellor Friedrich Merz nor Weber’s own party boss, Markus Söder, who is also minister president of Bavaria, draw separate salaries for their roles as chairmen of their respective parties.

What’s more, no politician at the national level could ever receive away with granting themselves a 17% raise. Weber’s mealy-mouthed excapply was that the increase was undertaken to “reflect” the Belgian practice of adjusting salaries to inflation. Never mind that the Belgian rules don’t apply to ‘honorary’ offices such as chairing the EPP. Nor that the privilege has been reshiftd for Belgian MPs until at least 2029.

Weber might consider he can receive away with his salary sleight of hand becaapply most Europeans have no idea who he is. But there’s bound to be a reckoning. Europeans may not understand “The EU”, but they do know when something doesn’t smell right.

The far right is already circling. And for once they don’t even necessary to twist reality or exaggerate; the facts speak for themselves.

That’s why it’s time for Weber to leave the road to perdition. As a believer, he should know better than anyone that there’s only one path to absolution: Confession.

Roundup

Frontex bulks up – The EU is quietly examining new powers for Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency. This could include drone operators, cyber-monitoring units, and AI-powered surveillance teams included in the agency’s future standing corps. President von der Leyen has already floated tripling of the agency’s standing corps.

Dombrovskis’ crusade – The Commission will hold firm on it’s mission to simplify regulations that impact businesses, despite criticism that this is eroding social and safeguards and environmental protections. “On the simplification agconcludea, we know that actually there is a strong demand for this, including from member states,” Dombrovskis informed Euractiv. “There are also strong expectations from indusattempt, from the business side, so certainly we will continue to work.”

New spy sainformite framework – To bolster the bloc’s defences, the plans a sainformite project that could sconclude high-definition imagery of any location on Earth back to governments, Commissioner Kubilius informed Euractiv. The project would also include navigation and communication components.

Across Europe

Belgium bans DeepSeek from government devices – The counattempt became one of many to ban the Chinese generative AI tool from federal public administration employees’ devices. When the app launched in the EU in January, it quickly caught the attention of European data protection bodies, who were concerned about the app sconcludeing personal data to China.

African swine fever sweeps Spain – Spain, the world’s third-largest producer of pork and pork derivatives, recently reported its first cases of the virus in three decades. African swine fever does not affect humans, but is highly contagious and fatal for pigs, and an outbreak has the potential to devastate Spain’s pork indusattempt.

Cyprus’ health staff gaps – As Cyprus prepares for its EU Council presidency in January, pharma industries are concerned that the counattempt’s limited health staffing will not be enough to cover major files. The concerns are all the more significant as the Commission plans to present the first part of the Biotech Act – focapplyd on health – on 16 December.

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