By IANS/AKI,
Rome : Italian MPs earn an average salary of 16,000 euros (around $20,900 or Rs.11,12,000), making them the top earners among lawmakers in the European Union (EU), according to a government report.
A government-sponsored commission was asked to survey the salaries of MPs across EU countries to put the pay of Italy’s 950 lawmakers in line with that of their European counterparts.
The report said Italian MPs made about 2,500 euros a month more than no.2 France, where politicians’ monthly salary totals around 13,500 euros.
The president of Italy’s national statistics agency Istat headed the committee that prepared the report on members of parliament in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria.
Italy’s new government headed by former EU competition commissioner Mario Monti has pushed through a series of emergency measures designed to balance the budget, trim the debt and stimulate growth for the third-richest country among 17 nations that use the euro currency.
Monti in December formed the government after an economic crisis toppled the Silvio Berlusconi regime.
Furious Italians, who will now have to pay more taxes and work longer, have demanded that politicians also feel the pain of the reforms.