Parliament’s largest groups suggest fresh proposals on MEPs’ expenses

By Martin Banks

Date: 16/09/04

A FRESH attempt is to be made to break the deadlock over reform of MEPs' expenses.

Under proposals put forward by the Parliament's two biggest political groups, the European People's Party (EPP-ED) and the Socialists (PES), member states would be able to choose the method of reimbursing their MEPs' travel expenses. Members would receive either a flat-rate travel allowance or be reimbursed "at cost".

At present, deputies benefit from a travel allowance which, in some cases, bears no relation to the expenses actually incurred in travelling to Brussels and Strasbourg.

It is hoped that an agreement on the expenses issues between all Parliament's political groups would change the Parliament's "gravy-train" image. But it would still leave unresolved the thorny issue of MEPs' salaries. Under the present system, some members, for instance the Italians, are paid more than ten times some of their colleagues. This is because deputies are paid the same salaries as their fellow national parliamentarians.

Newly elected Lithuanian Liberal MEP Sarunas Birutis gets €800 per month, while his Italian counterparts earn over €11,000 per month.

Birutis said: "There is absolutely no justification for one MEP receiving €11,000 per month and another one just €800.

We do pretty much the same work so why shouldn't we have standardized salaries? I hope that we shall see a new statute for MEPs, not just a deal on expenses, but whether we will remains to be seen."

On the eve of last June's European elections, MEPs bowed to overwhelming pressure and voted through a new statute, a move greeted as a historic breakthrough. Under the terms of the deal, members would have received the same pay, about €8,000 per month, their retirement age would have been 63 and the expenses system would have been changed so that they were only reimbursed on the basis of the actual cost incurred.

But the deal was rejected by the member states, leaving the newly enlarged Parliament back at square one.

The assembly's President Josep Borrell told this week's Parliamentary plenary in Strasbourg that the adoption of a members' statute was one of the main priorities of his term in office.

EPP-ED leader Hans-Gert Pöttering, who is tipped to become the assembly's next president in two-and-a-half years, said: "The ball is very much in the court of the Council of Ministers. This Parliament has done all it can and it is now up to the Dutch presidency to do something about this."

The leader of the PES, Martin Schulz, said the Parliament should find a swift solution to the problem. "I do not want to spend the next five years talking about a members' statute," he added.

The European Parliament's two largest political groups, the European People's Party (EPP-ED) and the Socialists (PES), have put forward a new proposal to break the deadlock over reform of MEPs' expenses.

PES: Homepage http://www.pes.org/

EPP-ED: Homepage http://www.epp-ed.org/home/en/default.asp

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