Eurocrats subsidised morality

Just a few days ago I was sounding off about the attempt by Barroso to portray EU civil servants as the victims of monstrous attacks in the press,

"The European civil service is often attacked for its apparent 'privileges' when this is not the case and I am always defending this."

Saying he "cannot accept populism against the European civil service" he paid tribute to EU civil servants, describing them as a "great asset to Europe"

So imagine my surprise when I looked at the internal newsletter of the parliament to discover this,

The European Parliament is dedicated to reducing its carbon footprint and is seeking, as part of its Mobility Plan, to encourage its staff to use public transport.
In the case of European Parliament staff members based in Brussels, this measure will be carried out by means of a ‘third-party payment system’ contract signed by Parliament and the Société des Transports Intercommunaux de Bruxelles (STIB), under which Parliament will contribute 50% of the cost of individual season tickets taken out by its staff members.

I checked on STIB that will be 203 GBP per head. Now with an estimate of 5000 staff based in Brussels, that is at or near a million quid.

And why is that the Parliament is spending your money this way? Because it wants to feel morally superior to those that pay it.

Put it this way, when I worked in Brussels, I walked, or took public transport. And you know what I paid for it out of my wages. Weird that, just like the poor benighted Belgian taxpayer.

How dare the EU institutions lecture me about "No Car Day" or boast about turning their lights out at 6 pm on a Friday when everybody has left for their (heavily subsidised) trips home.

Who the hell do they think they are, taking taxpayers money, and coming all holier than thou? Mr Barroso, do you think that this public subsidy of European civil servants counts as privilege? If not what would you call it?