Expenses frozen to help fund rent rises

Date: 19/06/1997

By Rory Watson

MEPS' travelling expenses will be frozen at 1997 levels next year and other areas of parliamentary expenditure face unprecedented scrutiny under plans to cap the cost of the European Parliament.

The move, which is designed to keep the institution's overall spending at some 900 million ecu in 1998, coincides with a sharp increase in the Parliament's rental costs as it takes possession of new premises in Brussels and Strasbourg.

“The bureau had originally proposed a 2.7&percent; increase in the members' travel allowances in line with inflation, but we must be tough in all areas of expenditure,” said British Socialist MEP John Tomlinson, explaining the expenses freeze.

The decision not to increase the allowances also reflects an attempt by the Parliament's budget committee to speed up the work of the special group of MEPs which is investigating ways of ensuring greater accountability and transparency in the system of members' per diem and travel expenses.

The group, under the chairmanship of French Socialist Vice-President Nicole Pery, had originally been expected to present its ideas for reform before this week's Amsterdam summit, but these are now unlikely to appear before next month.

The draft budget, which Euro MPs will examine for the first time during their Brussels mini-plenary session next week, proposes freezing expenditure in a number of areas while investigations are carried out to establish where savings can be made and efficiency increased.

Under the plan, more than 12.5 million ecu which was originally earmarked for the Parliament's telecommunications and data-processing facilities would be frozen while a comprehensive review is carried out of the existing arrangements.

The budget committee is demanding that “after a period of years of intense investment in information technology, a clear and comprehensive action plan be drawn up” which would set specific objectives and take greater account of the division of parliamentary work between three different centres.

It is also insisting on a reassessment of the spending plans for the Epicentre, which the institution is establishing in Brussels, until “a programme of action has been agreed to ensure essential library and documentation services for members in their major workplaces”.

In addition, MEPs are being asked to support plans to reassess a number of existing contracts with outside companies providing cleaning, maintenance and security services for the many parliamentary buildings in Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg.

Under the budgetary broom, the Parliament's newly appointed Secretary-General Julian Priestley will also be asked to carry out a wide-ranging survey of the operation of the institution's restaurants and canteens and of commercial in-house services such as banks, shops, newsagents and travel agents.

Rents are one area where parliamentary expenditure is set to rise. They are likely to reach 146 million ecu in 1998, up from 120.8 million ecu last year, as new headquarters in Brussels and Strasbourg are completed.

In a bid to recoup some of the costs involved, the Parliament will be looking to transfer the leases on some of the buildings it will vacate to the European Commission, the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee.

The budget committee's proposals, drafted by Tomlinson, have attracted criticism from a number of French members, who want 12 Strasbourg plenary sessions explicitly written into the spending forecasts. But, following the practice of the past two years, the committee has included just 11, while still leaving open the possibility of a 12th.

The Parliament's draft budget, which represents 20&percent; of the EU's total administrative costs, is designed to lend a helping hand to attempts by Priestley to encourage greater staff mobility and expertise.

“We do not want a situation where staff doing administration do not understand political issues and those concentrating on politics do not understand administration. We need rounded fonctionnaires who can handle both,” explained Tomlinson.

As a result, the budget committee is recommending that “a total revision should be undertaken of professional training, which is currently too concerned with the extension of linguistic skills, so as to give priority to improving, financial, general management and staff management skills”.