EU Foreign Ministers last night agreed a reform of the system of MEPs' salaries which will increase those of Irish MEPs by 45 per cent to £52,000 a year. The new package of salary and reformed expenses, if approved by Parliament next month, will come into force after the European elections in June.
The meeting also backed a call from the Irish Minister, Mr Andrews, for humanitarian aid for East Timor after he had reported to them on his recent visit.
The reform of the salary system has been a deeply divisive issue both among MEPs and between them and member-states. Currently MEPs are paid the same as the parliamentarians from their national parliaments, leading to widespread discrepancies between member-states - from £2,000 a month for the Spanish, to £3,100 for the Irish, to a most generous £7,500 a month for the Italians.
While member-states have been reluctant to give MEPs salaries higher than those enjoyed in national parliaments, they have dubious expenses practices, seemingly tolerated by the Parliament authorities as a means of redressing perceived inequalities.
The most notorious of these has been the automatic payment of mileage rates for travel to the Parliament that bear no relation to the prices paid by the MEPs. Some MEPs have also been known to pocket staff allowances and other expenses.
The package agreed yesterday, or "common statute", provides for MEPs elected to the new Parliament to get a salary of £4,500 a month, a weighted average of the current salaries, to pay a common EU tax rate of 21 per cent, and for a reform of the expenses system so that expenses are paid only on the basis of vouched receipts.
MEPs will also continue to get a daily £180 attendance allowance to cover accommodation and food in Brussels or Strasbourg, a staff allowance of £7,500 a month to be paid directly by the Parliament to employees, and annual office expenses of £30,800. They will also be paid up to £20,000 a year towards travel costs within their constituencies.
The total cost of an Irish MEP is thus likely to come close to £250,000 a year, a charge that will now be born exclusively by the EU taxpayer.
But final agreement was possible only when some member-states were given an opt-out to allow them to levy their full national tax rates on their MEPs. Sweden and Denmark said they would do so, while the UK and Finland hinted they might.
