Kinnock pressed over salary perks

Date: 18/07/02

By Martin Banks

GERMAN MEP Gabriele Stauner is to press Neil Kinnock and his fellow commissioners to confirm whether they have taken advantage of a pay perk, the legality of which has been questioned.

Stauner, a leading campaigner for transparency within the EU institutions, wants them to spell out precisely how much they have received under the arrangement. She has aimed her remarks at Kinnock in particular because he is in charge of reform. 'I think it is hypocrisy of the first order that he says he is fighting against fraud and yet they grant this addition to his salary,' she stormed.

The EU's staff regulations allow officials to transfer up to a third of their salaries to their home countries and, where applicable, to receive an additional sum based on a cost-of-living assessment.

But the rules have also been applied for decades to the government-appointed 'members' of the institutions, that is the commissioners, judges and senior auditors.

Because of wide differences in the cost of living in EU national capitals compared to Belgium, some officials and members receive a salary top-up, while others do not. 'There is a North-South divide,' one Commission source explained.

'In countries like Spain and Greece where the cost of living is lower than in Brussels, there is no weighting factor involved. It's mostly the northern countries which benefit.'

The maximum amount Kinnock could have transferred each year on his current salary was €72,426, to which €46,315 would have been added as a weighting.

The budget line for the so-called 'weighting factor', which also applies to ex-members of the institutions, has always been approved by the Council of Ministers and European Parliament.

However, in May, the Court of Auditors expressed doubts as to the clarity of the legal basis for the system and suspended transfers for its members pending a review of the situation.

On 1 July, the Commission and the European Court of Justice followed suit, with the suspension applying only to the members of the institutions and not the career officials.

Kinnock said: 'Because of the doubt, we said the only thing an accountable Commission could do in the circumstances was to suspend the system unless and until there was a very precise legal base.

'There will be discussions between all the institutions affected to see whether a legal base should be developed, whether it can be developed and, if so, what form it should take.'

He dismissed suggestions that the scheme could be seized on by eurosceptics as one more example of the perks enjoyed by EU officials.

'Eurosceptics would use the purchase of a bus ticket in Brussels as evidence of a gravy train,' he said.

Kinnock's spokesman, Eric Mamer, said the commissioner wanted to abolish the transfer scheme for both officials and members, but this had been resisted by staff unions.

Under a compromise still to be approved by EU ministers, such transfers would in future be strictly limited, for example to officials committed to paying alimony or with a child in higher education. The weighting factor would also be based on the national average cost of living rather than the figures for expensive capital cities.

Mamer stressed that the current system had not been deemed illegal and would remain in place until the Council ruled on the issue.

It was a 'private matter' how much money Kinnock and other commissioners had transferred home, he added.

MEP Gabriele Stauner is to press Neil Kinnock and his fellow Commissioners to confirm whether they have taken advantage of a pay perk, the legality of which has been questioned.