Delay to MEPs’ allowances report

Date: 22/05/1997

PLANS to reform the system of parliamentary allowances for MEPs and introduce a uniform European statute for members are running into unexpected difficulties and delays.

It is now increasingly likely that the small group of Euro MPs chaired by French Socialist Vice-President Nicole Pery will be unable to deliver its recommendations for changes to the present arrangements to the European Parliament's bureau before July.

It had earlier been hoped that the group, which was established after a public outcry last year over the lax way the travel and per diem allowances were being applied, would have its proposals ready before next month's Amsterdam European summit.

But the complexity of the issues involved and the fact that Pery is standing as a candidate in France's national assembly elections have upset the original timetable.

The delay is beginning to anger a number of MEPs, who believe that the Parliament's reputation will be further damaged unless tighter controls are introduced.

“It was originally decided that the changes to the present system would be on the table before the annual budgetary procedure starts,” said one senior official.

There are now indications that the Parliament's budget committee, which is already examining the EU's projected 1998 expenditure, will try to force the pace by proposing a complete freeze on MEPs' own spending until a satisfactory allowances system has been devised.

Some members, however, are trying to make a virtue out of the delay. They point out that any decision to create a Euro-statute for MEPs, setting out their rights and obligations and ensuring them the same salaries for the first time, would also need to be agreed by EU leaders.

“It would need to be written into the EU's treaty and that would be done through the current Intergovernmental Conference. That is the key to getting the expenses system right. But at the moment that prospect appears remote,” said one senior member.

Despite the support which French President Jacques Chirac and some other leaders have given to the idea, the concept of a Euro MPs' statute has run into opposition in other quarters, notably from German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

While that deadlock has upset European Parliament President José María Gil-Robles' plans to agree the reforms in parallel, Pery's group is continuing its examination of the allowances system.

Three separate schemes are on the table for handling MEPs' travel expenses: reimbursement of a club-class fare from a member's own airport to Brussels or Strasbourg; a flat-rate kilometre allowance which would decrease after a certain distance; and payment for actual travel costs incurred.

While there is general agreement that the per diem allowance system works fairly well, the idea is being mooted that MEPs who sign up for the payment should be under an obligation to vote on any legislation being decided that day under the co-decision procedure - an area where the Parliament's powers have a noticeable impact on Union business.