To be clear: they pay their own editors, the ones who do the coordination, not the authors (who actually edit the paper) or the reviewers.

11000 is the annual pay of a Phd student in southern europe, it's incredibly high amount. the $5000 that elsevier asks is already enough. prestigious EU grants run for > $1m. National grants may be $100000.

As an EU citizen i hate the fact that even more EU money is siphoned to enrich the NPG. We ve had enough and this must stop. I hope both them and elsevier get outright banned, because clearly open access is another revenue stream for them