Brussels bureaucrats forced to take pay freeze after ECJ ruling Brussels officials will have to forgo a 2011 pay rise after the EU's top court ruled that they cannot shield themselves from the kind of austerity measures that they have imposed on common European citizens at the height of the euro crisis. At the peak of the eurozone debt meltdown two years ago, the European Commission awarded its staff with a 1.7 per cent salary increase despite the protestations by national capitals that EU rules required a pay freeze in a "sudden and serious deterioration" in Europe's economy. EU civil servants insisted national capitals had no say in the automatic pay rise - arguing that many of those same national civil servants were getting pay rises of their own back home. On Tuesday, however, the European Court of Justice stunned Brussels officialdom by siding with national capitals. The Luxembourg court said that the bloc's states were responsible for deciding when a "sudden and serious deterioration" had occurred and ruling that the commission cannot implement the increase in their 2011 and 2012 remuneration. Several member states, who at the time argued that Brussels should impose the same budget cuts they have been asked to carry out on their own public sectors by the commission, gleefully cheered the court's ruling. "As a result of this case, in which the UK played a leading role, Europe's governments have stopped the unjustifiable increases to EU salaries and pensions for 2011," said Nicky Morgan, Economic Secretary to the Treasury. When governments and families across Europe are taking difficult decisions to make savings, it would be wrong and irresponsible for the EU to not show similar restraint. As part of our austerity and reform package we proposed a new method that took account of some of the concerns that member states had and that method has now been adopted Antony Gravili, Commission spokesperson The Commission tried to play down the ruling arguing that pay rules have changed since 2011, as Brussels seeks to quash criticism that Eurocrats have double standards over austerity policies on remuneration. "Things have moved on since then," said Antony Gravili, a Commission spokesperson. As part of our austerity and reform package we proposed a new method that took account of some of the concerns that member states had and that method has now been adopted. Starting from January 2014, EU civil servants" pay can increase or decrease a maximum 2 per cent, while under a new "crisis clause" any gains in purchasing power of EU staff will be limited whenever there is a downturn in the EU economy. The Commission added that EU civil servants pay has been frozen for 2013 and 2014.