The outgoing EU presidents will pocket nearly £440,000 between them in so-called “transitional allowances”. After seeing out his five-year mandate, European Commission boss Mr Juncker, 64, is entitled to a £144,000 golden goodbye from Brussels. The 64-year-old bureaucrat missed out on another £144,000 because he reaches pensionable age half-way through the two-year payout period.
Mr Tusk, 62, who steps down as the European Council’s president, could trouser up to £288,000 from the lucrative transitional payment scheme offered to departing eurocrats.
Former Brussels bureaucrats are entitled to the monthly parachute payments, with the value dependent on their length of service to the EU project.
Messrs Juncker and Tusk are handed 50 percent of their final salaries after having served the bloc for five years each.
As the bloc’s most senior officials, the pair earned a £24,000-a-month basic salary.
When other allowances are included, they pocket more than £350,000-a-year in pay.
Their handouts begin the day after they leave office.
They will be still entitled to pocket the money even if they secure new jobs.
The amount will only be reduced if their other incomes combined with the EU severance package exceed their current salary.
Mr Tusk has already been named president of the powerful European People’s Party political group.
It is unclear what Mr Juncker plans do do after leaving his Brussels office.
Seventeen outgoing European commissioners – including Britain’s Sir Julian King – will also be handed hefty payouts by Brussels.
The departing £20,000-a-month eurocrats will collectively be in line for more than £4 million in transitional payments.
MUST READ: EU on brink: Bloc’s economy clobbered by Brexit worries, trade war
“Unfortunately their successors, a failed German defence minister and an ousted Belgian prime minister, will be no different.
“Arrogant, hypocritical bureaucrats who do not deserve another penny of British taxpayers’ money.”