Move to reduce delegation costs

Date: 25/04/1996

By Rory Watson

NEW restrictions in the pipeline will reduce MEPs' opportunities for exotic overseas travel through their membership of one of the European Parliament's score of interparliamentary delegations.

Political group leaders are likely to be asked next month to endorse the changes, which aim to restrict the number of Euro MPs on interparliamentary delegations, limit participation to those genuinely interested and tighten up the overall organisation.

With 32 members in major delegations to China and Japan, the costs of travelling to Beijing or Tokyo are enormous. The Parliament's leaders, faced with budget stringency and potential criticism of the use of public funds, now want to reduce these.

The shake-up is being prepared by German Christian Democrat MEP Günter Rinsche, who heads the delegation ensuring parliamentary links with the Association of South East Asian Nations and the Republic of Korea.

“We are going to reform the current system. Some delegations are far too big. I think there should be more working groups of four to five MEPs. At the moment, we have the general principle whereby every MEP should be a member of a delegation,” explained Rinsche, the most senior of the 21 delegation leaders.

But Rinsche does not want to reduce the number of existing delegations, arguing: “This is important if we want to have permanent contacts. The disadvantage of ad hoc groups is that you have one meeting and then there is no follow-up.”

After creating its first delegation with the United States in 1972, the Parliament now has permanent links with counterparts as far afield as Australia, Mongolia and the Gulf States.

In addition, there are ten joint parliamentary committees with countries such as Hungary and Poland which have applied for membership of the EU, and a separate delegation for 70 African, Caribbean and Pacific states.

There is even pressure to turn the ad hoc delegation with the Palestine Liberation Organisation into a permanent link with the Palestinian Authority.

It will cost the Union some 4.2 million ecu this year to fund the various travel and accommodation costs of this network, under which annual meetings alternate between the EU and the partnership country.

Several MEPs want the proposed reforms to be more radical than those being envisaged by Rinsche and other delegation leaders.

“Some delegations are very effective with definite political value, but others are little more than jollies. You get the situation occasionally where an MEP says: 'I do not want to be on that delegation as I have been there already.' You also find that it is Spanish members who are most interested in Latin America, the British in Australia and the French in former French colonies,” complained one senior Euro MP.

Such critics believe that the number of interparliamentary delegations should be reduced, with a smaller number of key permanent delegations and ad hoc delegations elsewhere.

But defenders of the present system point out that efforts have already been made to cut costs.

Recent reforms stipulate that only 50&percent; of a delegation may travel abroad at a time. But this has just led to a lack of continuity, with half the membership going to one meeting and the remainder to the next.

Rinsche defends the delegations against allegations that they are too costly.

“We now travel business class, not first class and have cut down on the number of interpreters. On my last visit to Vietnam, we did not take any interpreters at all,” he points out.

Dutch Socialist MEP Niels Sindal, who has led the delegation to Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia for the past two years, insists that regular contacts are vitally important with countries seeking to join the Union.

“Our links with the Baltics are very useful. They listen very carefully and follow our suggestions. For instance, we have stressed it is extremely important that all levels of society, not just those at the top, are aware of - and follow - EU rules if they want to join,” he says.