MEPs close to common salary deal

By Martin Banks

Date: 09/06/05

The European Parliament is next week expected to take a significant step towards introducing a common salary for MEPs. The assembly's legal affairs committee will vote next Wednesday (15 June) on a compromise proposal put forward by Luxembourg, current holder of the EU presidency.

If, as expected, the committee backs the proposal, a mini-plenary is to adopt it on 22 June, setting the stage for the package to be rubberstamped by the Council of Ministers before the end of the month.

A Luxembourg presidency spokesman said: "Member states are happy with our proposals and the ball is now back in the Parliament's court."

Under the proposals, all MEPs would earn €7,000-per-month. At present, they receive the same salary as their counterparts in national parliaments, meaning the 87 Italians earn about €11,000 a month while the Spanish deputies earn four times less than their Mediterranean neighbours.

The salaries of those deputies currently earning more than E7,000 a month will have to reach the common salary after maximum two Parliamentary mandates, or ten years. Since the statute would apply from 2009, this means that, in theory, the Italian government could keep paying its members the same as its national parliamentarians well into the next decade.

As part of the deal, MEPs will only be able to claim in expenses what they spend. Usually, deputies at the bottom of the pay scale have used the expenses regime to supplement their wages.

Member states will also be given the option of taxing MEPs' salaries under national tax law.

Last year, an attempt to solve the long-running problem failed when Germany, France, Sweden and Austria rejected a salary of 8,600 euro-per-month.

Anticipation of a vote at the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee on 15 June 2005 on a compromise proposal regarding a common salary for MEPs. The proposal had been put forward by the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council.

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