TheMayor.EU logo 
The French-Irish infrastructure will transfer sustainable nuclear and wind energy between the two countries, strengthening their energy independence
Do you think your city has what it takes?
The Latvian capital joins a growing rank of European cities that have turned to taxing the visitors’ impact
The Government has presented the idea, but some of the business actors are not too keen on it
The city will limit the number of these two-wheelers in the centre to 500, in order to push companies to service residential areas as well
The city already sees 6,000 days of shooting in a year, meaning the film flap falls roughly 17 times a day
The Estonian city is preparing for its upcoming European Green Capital year in style
The birds will be specially trained to scare off pigeons from their favourite places in the city’s parks
The smart devices also let drivers with reduced mobility know where the nearest free spot is located
It will aid them in collecting data about the incidents that can be used in court
The city’s Second District opted for sustainable Christmas decoration this year
The city marked the 250th e-taxi license, issued by local traffic authorities
The city marked the 250th e-taxi license, issued by local traffic authorities
The city will limit the number of these two-wheelers in the centre to 500, in order to push companies to service residential areas as well
The smart devices also let drivers with reduced mobility know where the nearest free spot is located
The northern Swedish municipality received the award from the European Commission on account of its long-term commitment and innovative mindset
Some shops have stayed open for more than six generations of the same family and trace their origins to the Austro-Hungarian Empire
The city’s Second District opted for sustainable Christmas decoration this year
Faux or fact? Now, it’s up to you to shine the light on the truth
Local authorities want to monitor the situation and keep a healthy housing balance
It will aid them in collecting data about the incidents that can be used in court
It features sirens, digital panels, evacuation signs and routes to safer meeting points
The minimum wage in Luxembourg is almost seven times higher than the same in Bulgaria
According to a Eurostat report on the minimum wage in the EU Member States, published last Friday, Luxembourg has the highest absolute minimum wage, while Bulgaria has the lowest. The report shows the staggering imbalance between the different countries as the highest minimum wage is almost 7 times higher than the lowest.
The Eurostat data goes a step further, by adjusting wages based on the purchasing power standard. While that approach shrinks the gap between wages in Luxembourg and Bulgaria to three times, it seems to do little to change their position in the wider picture.
The Eurostat report focuses on 21 out of the 27 EU Member States, because Italy, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, Finland and Cyprus do not have an official minimum wage, making them an outlier in the block. At the same time, the findings are based on data for January 2022.
The remaining 21 countries are divided into three groups based on wages in euros. The first group includes 13 countries where the number was below 1,000 euros. These are Bulgaria (332 euros), Latvia (500 euros), Romania (515 euros), Hungary (542 euros), Croatia (624 euros), Slovakia (646 euros), Czechia (652 euros), Estonia (654 euros), Poland (655 euros), Lithuania (730 euros), Greece (774 euros), Malta (792 euros) and Portugal (823 euros).
With a couple of notable exceptions in the higher-end of the spectrum, all countries here are from the former Eastern Bloc.
The second category includes Slovenia (1,074 euros) and Spain (1,126 euros), where the minimum wage is just over 1,000 euros but under 1,500. Finally, the third group includes the remaining six Member States: France (1,603 euros), Germany (1,621 euros), Belgium (1,658 euros), the Netherlands (1,725 euros), Ireland (1,775 euros) and Luxembourg (2,257 euros).
Mapping the minimum wage in the European Union, January 2022, Source: Eurostat
For comparison, the federal minimum wage in the United States was 1,100 euros in January 2022.
The second part of the report dives into adjusting the data by purchasing power standard (PPS), which shrinks the disparities between countries considerably.
When adjusting for purchasing power, a lot of countries shuffle around,
Source: Eurostat
The higher prices in western countries is the main factor in accounting for western real wages shrinking while those in the former Eastern Bloc going up. After the adjustment, minimum wages ranged from 604 PPS per month in Bulgaria to 1 707 PPS in Luxembourg, meaning that the highest minimum wage was almost 3 times higher than the lowest.
Here, the authors have divided countries into two groups, those above and those below 1,000 euros. Another interesting point is that here, the east-west divide is much less prominent, with Slovenia, Poland and Lithuania making it into the above-1,000 PPS group.
Irish Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss voted to create a constitutional amendment in the country to give Nature rights comparable to companies and citizens
This type of waste has enormous energy potential as it releases biogas that can be used to generate electricity or heat
The city will limit the number of these two-wheelers in the centre to 500, in order to push companies to service residential areas as well
The smart devices also let drivers with reduced mobility know where the nearest free spot is located
It will aid them in collecting data about the incidents that can be used in court
The Estonian city is preparing for its upcoming European Green Capital year in style
The smart devices also let drivers with reduced mobility know where the nearest free spot is located
The northern Swedish municipality received the award from the European Commission on account of its long-term commitment and innovative mindset
Environmental activists accuse the authorities of failing to stay on the carbon neutrality course
Some shops have stayed open for more than six generations of the same family and trace their origins to the Austro-Hungarian Empire
The northern Swedish municipality received the award from the European Commission on account of its long-term commitment and innovative mindset
The city’s Second District opted for sustainable Christmas decoration this year
This initiative seeks to integrate the values of the New European Bauhaus into the European Commission’s 100 Cities Mission
These will be spread across 11 EU countries and will serve to support the EU Missions
The European Commission has accepted to develop the idea
Veni Markovski’s take on dealing with disinformation in the European Union's poorest country – Bulgaria
A conversation with the mayor of Utrecht on the occasion of her mission to COP27
A conversation with the President of the European Committee of the Regions, about energy, climate change and the underrated importance of cohesion policy
