Enlargement MEPs face ten-year salary squeeze

By Martin Banks

Date: 03/03/05

THE Luxembourg presidency is making fresh attempts to reform the pay of MEPs, suggesting that representatives from new member states might not be given the 'full' salary for as long as ten years.

Their salaries would be increased incrementally until they match the common salary to be set for MEPs from the old EU-15 states.

At present, MEPs' salaries vary between countries, being linked to the salary of national parliamentarians. There are sizeable differences in pay with MEPs from Italy paid €11,000 per month, while those from Spain get €2,600. The differences have increased with enlargement of the EU. MEPs from Lithuania receive €800 per month.

For years, the Parliament and the Council of Ministers have tried to agree upon a common salary for all MEPs and clear the way to reforming the MEPs' allowances, which many of them use to compensate for lower salaries.

Procedurally, salary reform requires a proposal from the Parliament to be agreed by the Council of Ministers.

The last effort was blocked in December 2003 by Germany, France, Austria and Sweden, who argued that the proposed monthly salary of €8,500 was too high.

The defeated proposals would have given member state governments the chance to tax MEPs at a national, rather than an EU rate, the pensionable age for deputies would have been increased from 60 to 63.

The presidency is currently consulting member states to see what might be feasible. Nicolas Schmit, Luxembourg's deputy foreign minister, confirmed that "a salary of around 7,000 euro" would be suggested.

Luxembourg hopes to satisfy German, Austrian and French concerns by reducing the proposed level. Swedish concerns also deal with taxation.

Schmit said: "The strategy is to go smoothly towards a harmonisation of MEPs' salaries. Within a certain time-frame, some deputies' salaries will increase, others will decrease to get to the same figure." This could take around ten years, he suggested.

Procedurally, if the Council could agree on a package it would go back to the Parliament for consideration. If the Parliament could accept the Council's text, it would then be passed.

Unofficially, MEPs from the new member states compare being denied a full salary with the way their farmers are being denied the full levels of farm support on admission to the EU.

A spokesman for Martin Schulz, leader of the Socialist group, said: "There has been some talk but there is not a draft sitting waiting." Klaus-Heiner Lehne, a senior Christian Democrat German MEP, said he did not see how the higher salaries could be phased out. MEPs elected in 2004 would have the right to their existing salary. The right to choose whether to stick to the existing arrangements or switch to an EU salary had been part of the December 2003 package, he said.

But he was more positive about the phasing in of salaries, suggesting that MEPs from the new member states might begin at "half or two-thirds" of the common salary which would be increased "step-by-step".

In theory, changes to the MEPs' allowances, whose abuse has brought the Parliament into discredit, could be handled separately from the salary since they need only be agreed internally by the Parliament.

A report on discharge of Parliament's 2003 accounts by Lithuanian Liberal member Ona Jukneviciene calls for a date to be set to resolve the issue, irrespective of the outcome of the Luxembourg initiative.

The Greens and Socialists have put forward an amendment suggesting January 2006 as a deadline. The budgetary control committee will discuss the matter on 15 March.

In a new attempt to reform salaries of the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), the Luxembourg Presidency has suggested that representatives from new Member States might not be given the 'full' salary for as long as ten years. According to the plans, MEPs' salaries, being linked to the salary of national parliamentarians and thus varying between countries, should eventually be the same for all MEPs.