Pressure grows for MEPs to put their own house in order

Date: 16/09/1999

By Gareth Harding

With the European Commission drawing up reform plans left, right and centre, attention has begun to focus on the Parliament's much-criticised working practices.

The committee of wise men's second report into cronyism and corruption in the Commission attacked MEPs for failing to meet the same high standards of public duty that it expects of others.

Immediately after the report was published late last week, Green Group leader Heidi Hautala called on the Parliament to "have the courage to conduct a similar study of its own administrative problems".

Many other members are also acutely aware of the need to shake up the assembly's methods of doing business. "The Commission has got the message, but if the Parliament does not get its act together soon, it will become the focus of attention and public outrage," warned Dutch Socialist Michiel van Hulten.

MEPs have long been criticised for lining their pockets with generous travel expenses and for allegedly treating their assistants like slaves. But it was the resignation of Jacques Santer's Commission team which put the spotlight on the Parliament's more dubious practices.

In May, MEPs were given a golden opportunity to put their house in order when EU governments proposed a set of common rules for paying members' salaries, expenses and pensions. But rather than accept the changes floated by the Council of Ministers, Euro MPs stuck rigidly to the text agreed by the assembly last December.

Many MEPs believe that this move was an act of political suicide just one month before June's Euro-elections. In countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands, candidates were forced to draw up their own codes of conduct under a barrage of press and public criticism. But even this was not enough to assuage the disgust of voters, who stayed away from the polling booths in droves.

"There is no way we will get people to vote in five year's time if we do not clean up our act," said Van Hulthen, who added: "It is also a major distraction from the real work we should be doing."

The Liberals and the centre-right European People's Party have vowed to strike a deal with EU governments on a statute for members by Christmas. But given the intransigence of some MEPs, this might be a forlorn hope.

In light of this, some senior MEPs are already playing down the importance of that self-imposed deadline. "We have lived without a statute for 30 years and if we live without one for one or two years more it should not be so difficult to explain to the public," said Parliament Vice-President Ingo Friedrich.

However, other MEPs are more impatient to get the reform bandwagon rolling. Dutch and Danish MEPs are urgently trying to persuade their colleagues to sign up to an ambitious code of conduct which, amongst other things, would only allow members to claim actual travel costs incurred, oblige them to publish an annual statement detailing how they spend their general expense allowance and publish information about other income on the Internet.

Socialist Group leader Enrique Baron Crespo supports the idea of an MEPs' code of conduct, but others think that it is premature. "We need to go step by step," said Friedrich. "Once all the issues on the table are dealt with, then it is time for a code of conduct."

Aside from the new statutes for MEPs and their assistants, other hot political potatoes on this autumn's reform agenda include how European political parties are financed and how to make the declaration of members interests more transparent.

At the moment, anyone who wants to know what outside interests MEPs have has to travel to one of the Parliament's three seats. However, senior parliamentarians are studying ways of making the information more accessible - either by putting copies of the register in national capitals or on the Internet.

Drawing up a statute for European political parties is another priority for MEPs. The Socialist Group's new secretary-general Ton Beumer points out that, at present, there are "no clear rules for European political parties and on what basis they can profit from European tax payers' money".

Senior officials say they hope to make the grey area of party financing more black and white within the next year.