Sleaze threat to Euro-poll

Date: 11/06/1998

By Simon Coss

LEADING MEPs are warning that next year's Euro-elections risk being overshadowed by allegations of misconduct surrounding the payment of parliamentarians' allowances.

Liberal Group leader Gijs de Vries insists the European Parliament's business managers must act quickly to remedy shortcomings in the allowances system highlighted in a recent confidential report by the Court of Auditors, the EU's financial watchdog.

"There is an urgent need for reform and I want to see the bureau take action in a number of areas before the summer so that the Parliament's budget can be amended accordingly," De Vries told European Voice this week.

"At a time when we are making major advances such as preparing for the euro, should the European election campaign really be focused on MEPs' expenses?" he added.

De Vries argues that MEPs should only be paid travel expenses, daily attendance allowances or money for employing administrative assistants if they can prove that the cash they are claiming has actually been spent.

The Court of Auditors' report warned that under the current system for paying allowances, parliamentarians could claim payment for expenses they had never incurred.

De Vries' concerns about the Parliament's public image were echoed by Socialist Group leader Pauline Green, who added that EU governments had a role to play in helping the Parliament to reform.

"There is no place in public life for fiddles, scams or abuses," she said. "The effort led by Socialists in the European Parliament to put our house in order in a number of areas has been thwarted by the failure of EU ministers to enact common terms and conditions under which Euro MPs from all countries should serve."

The introduction of an 'MEP's statute' is likely to prove crucial to a permanent resolution of the expenses issue.

Euro MPs are currently paid the same salaries as national parliamentarians, producing very large variations in the salaries of members from different countries.

Some believe certain MEPs have taken an 'imaginative' approach to filling in their expenses claim forms in an attempt to even out these imbalances, and maintain that Spanish members have been particularly prone to augmenting their national stipends in this way.

They say that the system is therefore unlikely to change while Spaniard José María Gil-Robles remains president of the Parliament. "Gil-Robles is a prisoner of the Spanish deputies. As long as he is there nothing substantial will change," claimed one insider.

Sources close to Gil-Robles strenuously deny this and insist he is keen to reform the expenses system. But they admit it will be difficult to get the Parliament's bureau, made up of Gil-Robles, the institution's 14 vice-presidents and five quaestors (business managers), to agree on the sort of reforms De Vries is demanding before the summer recess.

"One possible solution would be to agree on new measures, but to implement them at a later date," suggested one expert.

Many MEPs believe it will not be possible to make sweeping changes until all members are paid the same salary. However, one possible stop-gap measure has been proposed, involving the creation of a top-up fund for members who earn the least.

Leading MEPs argue there is a need to reform the system of payment of allowances.