Eurocrats trying to fill a £10 billion black hole in their finances came up with their solution yesterday: Everyone must face cuts – except them.

They insisted their generous pay, pensions and perks must stay intact because their work is vital for the European Union to function as Britain leaves the bloc.

However they proposed the introduction of tax-raising powers across the remaining 27 member states.

Budget commissioner Gunther Oettinger said: 'The Brexit gap will be financed by a mix of cuts, shifting expenditure, saving, and some new sources of money.’

EU chiefs yesterday admitted that widespread reforms were needed to replace the current one-trillion euro budget because of the loss of Britain’s net annual contributions after Brexit.

Budget commissioner Gunther Oettinger said: ‘We will have a gap of ten to 11billion euros a year. Cuts will be necessary over the next decade. We can’t act like it is business as usual so we need to look at shifting expenditure and costs.’

He added: ‘I am ambitious and realistic. The Brexit gap will be financed by a mix of cuts, shifting expenditure, saving, and some new sources of money.’

Brussels presented Brexit as an opportunity to modernise. But a paper setting out proposals ignored criticism of the allowances given to the EU’s 55,000 employees and said they should remain unaffected.

A paper, signed off by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, said Eurocrats should not be forced to take pay cuts or suffer reduced pensions

The paper, signed off by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, said Eurocrats should not be forced to take pay cuts or suffer reduced pensions, worth an average of £59,000 every year.

As well as benefiting from low tax rates, officials in Brussels and Luxembourg are given a generous package of perks including household and expatriation costs.

Officials are also provided with childcare allowances, also covering some education costs, that can reach £6,500 per year.

In an attempt to justify the expenditure, the paper said the EU relies ‘on a strong and efficient European civil service’. It added: ‘A further reduction in staff levels could jeopardise the good functioning of the EU institutions. Similarly, previous reforms have reduced salaries, increased working time and pension age.’

The paper also included proposals for financial transaction taxes and environmental taxes and bolstered calls for travel visas to the bloc.

Insiders said the paper was an attempt at self-protection in anticipation of members ‘pointing at fat-cat salaries’ when cuts are demanded.

In a separate statement, Mr Oettinger admitted that planned enlargement of the bloc could leave the gap left by Britain at up to £19 billion every year.

The huge gap that will be left by the UK’s contributions – making up about 12 per cent of the EU budget – is driving the bloc’s demands for Britain to pay a divorce bill.

The eventual bill is expected to be around £35 billion.

Officials need the payment to make up post-Brexit contributions in the last two years of the bloc’s current seven-year budget. But they expect clashes when the next budget is drawn up, with net contributors such as Italy, Holland and France set to resist paying more.

One diplomat said: ‘All eyes are on this and there is going to be a huge fight about how we settle this because nobody wants to fork out even though we know something has to change.’

Commission chiefs stressed that EU citizens pay less than the price of a cup of coffee every day to fund membership.

Commissioner Corina Cretu defended the EU’s financing as the ‘most controlled budget and money on the world’.