The Commission evolves on the regulation of bonuses

(B2) Gradually, the Commission seems to be becoming aware of the problem posed by the limitless skidding of directors' salaries and the damage it is doing to public opinion in the midst of an economic crisis. A few months ago, it was out of the question to go further than the 2004 recommendation, which moreover aims more to promote the transparency of directors' salaries in an optional code of conduct. Then the Commission admitted to thinking about the issue. On Friday, during the usual midday press briefing, the spokesperson for JM Barroso (the President of the Commission), Johannes Laitenberger, confirmed that a "initiative would be taken in the coming weeks and, in any case, before the European elections" (early June). Evolution is therefore slow. But clean. The spokesperson even felt that it could be: “ A legal instrument that goes beyond the code of conduct. (because) This subject needs to be framed by both European and national legislation”. As for Nicolas Sarkozy's proposal to regulate bonuses more strictly in companies aided by the State, the spokesperson, after having dithered (“we don't really know the content of the initiative. (...) The Member States are free to act"),
acknowledged that "the Commission did not see certainly not (this initiative) with a bad eye»... We can clearly sense the ideological heartbreak in the Barroso Commission (originally very liberal in essence) today.