In a letter to European Parliament President David Sassoli on Friday 27 March, the two chairs of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, Ryszard Legutko and Raffaele Fitto, called for the use of MEPs’ unused daily allowances for the purchase of medical equipment to help health systems fight the coronavirus.
“We request the transfer of daily allowance funds that have already and will further remain unallocated as a result of telework and changes to the Parliamentary agenda, for the purpose of purchasing medical equipment”, they write in their letter.
They added, “In the age of global crisis, the citizens of the Member States expect from the EU [...] above all real actions in the spirit of solidarity with the people in need”.
These daily allowances, also known as ‘per diems’, are set at €323 per day and are intended to cover items related to Members’ official activities such as hotel bills and meals, provided that Members sign a register confirming their presence in Brussels or Strasbourg.
Therefore, in order to be entitled to do so, parliamentarians must be physically present at plenary sessions, Mr Sassoli recently recalled (see EUROPE 12454/3).
However, because of the risk of the spread of the coronavirus, very few Members still take part physically in plenary sessions. As a result, a large part of the fund for these allowances is no longer allocated.
Contacted by EUROPE, Parliament’s Spokesman’s Service stressed that it would first of all be necessary to determine whether such a use of allowances was possible under the legal rules governing Parliament’s budget.
A similar request had already been made on Wednesday 25 March by four Catalan MEPs, including Carles Puigdemont (see EUROPE 12454/3).
To consult the letter: https://bit.ly/2UDizMV (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)