Brussels, 04/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament should vote to restrict its own budget in 2012, reflecting austerity in EU member states, said the EP's budgets committee on Thursday 3 March, as it voted on guidelines for the 2012 budget. The EP budget should now enter a post-Lisbon Treaty consolidation phase, with no increase in 2012 beyond inflation, it added.
“We believe that the budget for 2012 must be neutral, that is to say, we must not exceed inflation... We would like a savings budget”, said José Manuel Fernandes (EPP, Portugal), rapporteur on the 2012 budget guidelines for other institutions (not the European Commission). The Fernandes report will be debated in plenary on Tuesday 8 March. In his report, MEPs urge the other EU institutions to table cost-cutting plans and improve co-operation between them so as to generate savings and manage the budgets better.
Although MEPs in the committee would prefer to see no increase in the budget, some possible future decisions would nonetheless require a higher budget, added Fernandes: “If there are decisions that give us new members - Croatian observers or the 18 new MEPs required by the Lisbon Treaty - it would be necessary to adopt an amending budget. It is essential to give new members the same assistance as the others”.
The guidelines are the first step in the EP budget procedure, and do not contain any figures. Parliament's Bureau (EP president and vice-presidents) is currently preparing a more detailed budget plan, including all figures, which will be put to a plenary vote in April.
Increased staffing allowance confirmed. In a separate vote, the budgets committee completed the implementation of last year's decision to increase the monthly staffing allowance by €1,500 per MEP in 2011, to enable them to cope with the increased workload following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. These funds do not go to the MEPs themselves - the employment of assistants is managed by the EP administration. The increase will allow MEPs to hire more - or better qualified - staff. The increase in the staffing allowance, totalling €13.2 million, had been put into a reserve during the 2011 budget procedure, awaiting an evaluation of the first part of the increase (also €1,500 per month), which took effect in spring 2010. The rapporteur for this decision was Helga Trüpel (Greens/EFA, Germany) although she herself opposed going ahead with this increase. Voting through an increase in the budget for MEPs' assistants in a period of budget austerity across Europe makes no sense at all, she commented. The increase was backed by the Conservative and Socialist MEPs.
Each MEP receives a gross monthly salary of €7,956.87, along with €19,709 a month to pay for their assistants and cover other costs. It is the second amount that has just been increased by €1,500. (L.C./transl.fl)