Deal on equal pay for MEPs

By Dana Spinant

Date: 28/04/05

An agreement on a common salary for members of the European Parliament is within reach, Nicolas Schmit, deputy foreign minister of Luxembourg, has said.

Following an informal discussion by Europe ministers of a statute for MEPs on Tuesday (26 April) in Luxembourg, Schmit said that the member states and the Parliament could accept a proposal put forward by the Luxembourg EU presidency.

Under the Luxembourg proposal, all MEPs would receive a salary of €7,000 a month, with those currently being paid more seeing their salaries reduced gradually until they match the common salary. The minister said officials still had to work on ironing out some "technical matters", but added that he hoped that a deal could be reached before the end of the Luxembourg EU presidency in June.

An agreement in January 2004 on a members' statute was blocked by Germany, France and Austria. Under that plan, MEPs would have received a monthly salary of €9,000. That would have meant a pay rise for some MEPs.

Currently MEPs' salaries are tied to the salary of members of their national legislature, which leads to discrepancies in remuneration between national delegations.

Schmit believes that the current proposal is more likely to be backed by member states because the €7,000 salary is more acceptable. A member of the German parliament earns an equivalent monthly salary. On the EU institution pay scale, €7,000 is what a head of unit earns. Schmit said that the current proposal provided for better transparency guarantees on MEPs' pay. "There will be no MEPs' statute without a change of system of allowances, under which everything is reimbursed on the basis of the cost actually occurred," he said.

Sources close to the President of the Parliament say Josep Borrell is also confident, following the discussion in Luxembourg, that a deal could be found in June.

Following an informal discussion by Europe ministers of a statute for MEPs on 26 April 2005 in Luxembourg, Nicolas Schmit, Deputy Foreign Minister of Luxembourg, said that the Member States and the European Parliament could accept a proposal put forward by the Luxembourg EU Presidency. Under the Luxembourg proposal, all MEPs would receive a salary of €7,000 a month, with those currently being paid more seeing their salaries reduced gradually until they match the common salary.