EU staff protest at perks cut

Staff of the European Union in Brussels have been demonstrating against plans to scrap some of their privileges and pay them according to their performance.

The reform package has been put together by Neil Kinnock, the vice-president of the European Commission the EU's executive arm.

He wants to link pay rises to promotion, instead of length of service, and he wants to cut such benefits as first-class rail fares home for staff and their families -- which they can claim even if they don't make the journey. The staff's union representatives have asked the European Commission president, Romano Prodi, to shelve the Kinnock proposals.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service