Brussels, 28/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - With the adoption of an opinion by German Social Democrat Willi Rothley, the European Parliament's legal committee recommended that European Parliament President Nicole Fontaine should accept a derogation to the principle of a single tax system for MEPs in order to remove the last obstacle to concluding negotiations between the Parliament and Council contact group concerning the development of a statute for MEPs.
The opinion, adopted with only three abstentions, confirms the principle whereby the statute should provide for a Community tax on MEP allowances but, given the categorical refusal of four countries, the legal committee decided to accept the non paper from the Swedish Presidency proposing derogation for Sweden, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Finland. The allowance would remain fixed at the European level but derogation would provide for: (1) the allowance to be paid from the Community budget but subject to national income tax with the same social provision as for national deputies (option A); (2) the allowance would be paid from the national budget and subject to national taxation (option B); (3) option C corresponds to the previous solution but specifies that MEPs have a right to the same social payments as national representatives. The legal committee took a stance on one of these three solutions but considered that, if the choice were to fall on option B or C, the derogations would have to expire in 2009 at the end of the next legislature.