I’ve worked a lot in the EU public sector and I generally don’t have a problem with paying people a living wage, but is constantly happening within the EU bureaucracy is that the ones that are “internals” don’t do enough work (if at all), so they end up outsourcing to local agencies which then pay people the bare minimum they can get away with to do the job the internals won’t or can’t do. And yes, it’s easily 2x if one includes all the benefits EU workers get.

I wouldn’t mind if they just got more money than the agencies, but I do mind that they think they’re superior to the agency staff and often treat said staff like second class citizens, if they’re not acting like petty tyrants even.

Finally my corruption comment was independent of my bureaucracy comment, not following from it.