Juncker on a mission to level out MEPs’ salaries

By Dana Spinant

Date: 21/04/05

The government of Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's EU president, is attempting to achieve a breakthrough in the long-running dispute over the salaries of members of the European Parliament, a quarter of a century after MEPs were first directly elected.

Ministers are to discuss a new proposal from Luxembourg on Tuesday (26 April) during an informal meeting in the Grand Duchy. A senior Luxembourg official expects progress from the meeting on reforming MEPs' salaries and hopes a final deal can be reached before the end of the Luxembourg presidency in June. "I expect some white smoke from the meeting," he said.

At present, MEPs' salaries vary between countries, being linked to the salary of national parliamentarians. Under the terms of the new 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. But an initial suggestion that salaries of MEPs from the new member states, who are being paid significantly less, would be increased incrementally until they match the common salary, has been dropped.

"We will have a phasing out, to reduce the pain for those who would have their salaries cut, but we will probably have no phasing in to increase the salaries of MEPs from the new member states," an official from the EU presidency said.

He explained that it would be difficult to convince the new MEPs that they should continue to be paid a fraction of what their colleagues earned, while other deputies who also earn significantly less at present, such as the Spanish or Portuguese MEPs, would receive the harmonised rate of pay from the beginning. "It does not fly, it would be impossible to explain this," he said.

It is not yet clear how long the transitional period for an MEP whose present salary would be cut might last. "It could be five years, it could be more. This is still to be negotiated."

A members' statute, if agreed, is unlikely to be applied before the next legislature is elected in 2009.

The aim of the reform is to eliminate the current pay discrimination which sees MEPs from Italy receive €11,000 a month, while those from Spain get €2,600. The differences have increased with enlargement of the Union. MEPs from Lithuania receive €800 a month. Sometimes their administrative assistants receive more than the deputies themselves.

Failure to reach a deal on MEPs' salaries has tarnished Parliament's image, particularly because it has prevented reform of the MEPs' travel allowances. The press in some member states, notably Germany, was highly critical of MEPs and their remuneration in the run-up to last June's European elections.

An agreement in January 2004 on a members' statute was blocked by Germany and Austria. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder was not prepared to allow MEPs to be given a substantial pay-rise at a time when Germany was cutting social costs. Under that plan, MEPs would have received a monthly salary of €9,000.

If agreement is reached among member states, the matter will be referred back to the Parliament, which has to give its assent.

Sources say MEPs would be under pressure to accept a deal brokered by the Luxembourg presidency. "If Juncker makes a logical and reasonable proposal, Parliament cannot oppose it," one senior Parliament official said.

He added that provisions on taxation, or a decision to forbid private pension schemes for MEPs, could still wreck a deal in Parliament. If member states make too many changes to the Parliament's initial proposal, MEPs may reject it. This happened in 1998, when Parliament voted down a text which was dramatically changed by member states.

The German centre-right MEP Klaus-Heiner Lehne thinks that the Luxembourg presidency "is the only presidency that is in reach of resolving this issue".

Article reports that the government of Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's EU president, was attempting to achieve a breakthrough in the long-running dispute over the salaries of Members of the European Parliament. EU Ministers were to discuss a new proposal from Luxembourg on 26 April 2005 during an informal meeting in the Grand Duchy. A senior Luxembourg official expected progress from the meeting on reforming MEPs' salaries and hopes a final deal could be reached before the end of the Luxembourg presidency in June 2005.