GETTY Nigel Farage has slammed the EU pay rise

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Despite cutbacks across the continent, 55,000 EU bureaucrats will receive a 3.3 per cent pay rise backdated to July, giving them a pay packet boost to the tune of £15.4million (€18m), just in time for Christmas. European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker is set to receive an annual pay rise of £8,793 despite facing calls to resign over his handling of the migrant crisis and the historic Brexit vote. The pay rise will see Juncker's annual salary jump to £275,275, twice that of Prime Minister Theresa May, who gets £143,492.

Another fat pay rise for Juncker and his Eurocrat pals in Brussels. The EU is the opposite of a meritocracy when people get rewarded for failure Nigel Farage

Interim Ukip leader Nigel Farage has slammed the move, which comes at a time of belt-tightening across Europe. He said: "Another fat pay rise for Juncker and his Eurocrat pals in Brussels. The EU is the opposite of a meritocracy when people get rewarded for failure. "It's going down the tubes so quickly that if Britain doesn't get out soon there'll be nothing left to leave.

GETTY Juncker already receives a sizeable salary

"The rump-EU may struggle on and with a threatened flood of migrants via Turkey it'll be all prepared for Christmas." A European Commission spokesman said the pay increase was decided using an ‘automatic formula’ agreed by MEPs and EU member states. He said: "The Commission plays no role when it comes to the automatic annual salary updates for EU staff.

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"Parliament and Council have agreed that the salaries of European officials should follow the trajectory of civil servants' purchasing power across the Member States. "Eurostat (the EU’s statistical body) has established that in the period between 1 July 2015 and 1 July 2016, salaries of national civil servants went up by 1.9 per cent on average. "At the same time, inflation in Belgium and Luxembourg was 1.4 per cent.

GETTY Juncker is set to receive the pay rise despite calls for him to resign