Pay reforms face last-minute hitch

Date: 08/05/02

By Martin Banks

PLANS to reform the pay and expenses regime for MEPs may have to go back to the drawing board.

After two years of bitter wrangling, the European Parliament's influential legal affairs committee last month approved plans to set MEPs' pay at half the rate of judges at the European Court of Justice.

But the long-awaited pay and conditions package looks set to founder, at least in its present form, according to Parliament's three main political groups. Of the political group leaders asked to comment on the deal, only one, the European People's Party's Hans-Gert Pöttering, gave his unequivocal backing to the plans approved in Strasbourg.

Others expressed reservations or outright opposition. Enrique Barón Crespo, leader of the 180-strong Party of European Socialists (PES), the second biggest group in the Parliament, said he is not satisfied with certain elements of the package.

'Generally, it's a step in the right direction, particularly on MEPs' pay and tax,' said Barón Crespo, a Spanish MEP. 'But I am not happy with some aspects of the package in its current form.'

UK member Graham Watson, leader of the 51-member Liberal group (ELDR), said: 'My group do not agree with it as it stands and will vote against it.' Watson particularly opposes plans for MEPs to receive a monthly salary of €8,500, which represents a substantial rise for most of the 626 members. 'This is significantly higher than the figure put forward by the independent experts who proposed that salaries should be 7,420 a month,' he added.

Watson said his group also objects to the proposed 17 tax rate for members. 'People in elected office should be subjected to the same tax rate as the people who elected them and, in most cases, this would not be 17,' he said.

Pöttering, German leader of the biggest political group, the 233-strong European People's Party, 'is in favour of it and doesn't see any reason to change it', according to a spokesman.

Barón Crespo, Watson and Pöttering, along with leaders of the smaller political groups, are due to discuss the statute with Parliament President Pat Cox at a meeting on 16 May. Unless a compromise can be thrashed out, the whole package may be scuppered. That would be an acute embarrassment to Cox, who has identified reform of pay and expenses as a key issue.

His acknowledged the challenge in getting the package approved. 'The feedback he's had from the national delegations is that the statute is not acceptable,' he said.

Added Bill Miller, vice-chairman of the legal affairs committee: 'I cannot see any way this statute can be approved.'

The proposals require the endorsement of the Parliament and EU government ministers.

Plans to reform the pay and expenses regime for MEPs have not received widespread support from the European Parliament's three main political groups.