Britain is taking legal action against the EU cap on bankers’ bonuses in a high-stakes political move to strike down the measure on the grounds that it hurts financial stability.
英国正在采取法律行动，抗议欧盟给银行家奖金设置上限，理由是奖金上限会影响金融稳定性。英国这一高风险举措充满政治意味。
George Osborne, the UK chancellor, filed the case at the European Court of Justice last week, a step most banks thought would be too politically unpalatable for the Treasury to take.
英国财政大臣乔治?奥斯本(George Osborne)上周向欧洲联盟法院(European Court of Justice)提起诉讼。此前大多数银行认为，英国财政部考虑到政治因素不太可能采取这一举措。
A Treasury spokesperson said: “These latest EU rules on bonuses, rushed through without any assessment of their impact, will undermine all of this by pushing bankers’ fixed pay up rather than down, which will make banks themselves riskier rather than safer. In other words, as the chancellor has said, they may undermine responsibility in the banking system rather than promote it.”
一位英国财政部的发言人表示：“欧盟有关银行家奖金的最新规定是在未对其影响做任何评估的情况下匆忙拟就的。此举将推高、而非降低银行家的固定薪酬，进而削弱奖金限制的效果;此举将使银行自身的风险升高，而非更加安全。换言之，正如财政大臣曾经说过的，这些规定可能减弱、而非增强银行体系中的责任感。”
While several investment banks have long thought there were grounds for a legal challenge, few believed Mr Osborne had the appetite for a such a fight to protect banker pay, given the political sensitivity of the issue.
虽然多家投资银行一直认为有理由对欧盟限制奖金的规定发起司法挑战，但几乎没有人相信，奥斯本愿意为了保护银行家收入而做出这种抗争，因为该问题的政治属性过于敏感。
Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labour party, mocked him for standing up for the right of bankers to take home big bonuses. Labour delegates at the party’s conference shouted an ironic “aaah” of sympathy when Mr Miliband said proposed new EU rules might restrict payouts.
英国反对党工党领袖埃德?米利班德(Ed Miliband)嘲笑奥斯本为了保卫银行家拿高额奖金的权利挺身而出。当米利班德在工党集会上表示，将要出台的欧盟新规可能限制银行家薪酬时，参会的该党代表装作同情地喊了一声“啊!”以示讽刺。
Phillipe Lamberts, a Green MEP who led calls for the cap, said: “The prudential soundness of a measure is for policy makers, not judges, to assess.”
带头支持设置奖金上限的欧洲议会绿党议员菲利普?兰贝茨(Phillipe Lamberts)表示：“应由政策制定者、而非法官来判断一项举措是否审慎合理。”
The cap was included in an overhaul of capital rules for banks, which Britain voted against, largely because of the pay restrictions. While the proposed upper limit on bonuses is set to hit tens of thousands of staff around the globe, the biggest impact will be in London.
奖金上限规定包含在一项对银行资本规则的全面修订中，英国对这项修订投了反对票，主要原因就在于薪酬限制。虽然将要出台的奖金上限规定将会对全球范围内成千上万的银行员工带来影响，但受冲击最严重的地区将是伦敦。
The British Bankers’ Association recently estimated that 35,117 staff at banks worldwide would be captured by the bonus cap, with two-thirds of them being based in the UK.
英国银行家协会(British Bankers’Association)不久前估计，世界各地的银行中共有35117名员工将受奖金上限制约，这些人中有三分之二在英国工作。
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