Strasbourg, 04/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday in Strasbourg, Parliament formally adopted (323 votes in favour, 137 against and 36 abstentions) its decision laying down a status for Members of the European Parliament. In conformity with article 190 of the Treaty, this text has still to gain Council's approval.
In an opinion, which it adopted on Tuesday afternoon after the assembly's vote on the draft status (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.15), the European Commission welcomed efforts by Parliament and Council to reach a "complete, permanent and transparent status, which will be applicable after legislation to all members, without exception". "This kind of status will contribute to improving Parliament's image between now and the 2004 elections", noted the Commission, which feels however that "the provisions of the draft status on immunity, incompatibility and various other parts, which are supposed to change primary legislation, particularly the protocol on privileges and immunity and the Act of 20 September 1976, raise certain legal problems, even under the suspensive form proposed". The Commission points out that a legal act based on article 190, which is by definition an act of secondary legislation, cannot modify primary legislation established by the protocol on privileges and immunity. It states that the provisions in questions could be interpreted as going beyond the competencies devolved to the Parliament under article 190. The rest of the opinion is relatively neutral, though the Commission observes that the status proposed "will cause substantial extra costs for the Community budget", and calls upon the budgetary authority to take the necessary provisions in view of this additional expenditure. On salary, the Commission "notes that setting salaries equivalent to 50% of those of members of the Court of Justice seems to correspond to a broad consensus it can go along with, as this is a transparent and objective basis". It has "no particular comment" on retirement and survivors' pensions. The Commission, which notes that the draft status specifies neither the nature nor the level of the expenditure the MEPs will receive, "just hopes that, in the exercise of this autonomous power, the Parliament will adopt an approach which will reflect the reimbursement of expenses incurred".
Just before the final vote, co-President of the Greens/FTA group, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, asked for it to be sent back to the parliamentary committee, but the plenary did not follow this request. Mr Cohn-Bendit asked them to "think seriously", and for the Commission's opinion to be taken into account, so that the Council would not opt for the Commission's argument in order to "say no". German Christian Democrat Klaus-Heiner Lehne opposed the idea of sending it back to the committee, saying that "this dossier is ripe". Commissioner Chris Patten briefly presented the Commission's opinion, hoping that there would be "no further obstacles to the status' adoption". Rapporteur Willy Rothley (German Social Democrat) welcomed "a constructive opinion", and said he thought there had been a misunderstanding on article 33 of the draft status. "We are open to a Council proposal on taxation", he took care to suggest.
At a press conference the previous day, Greek Minister Tassos Giannitsis had declared that he did not see, given the current state of the discussions, how this draft status could be approved by Council. EUROPE recalls that several Member States made their acceptance of the draft status conditional on the Parliament's adoption of a transparent regulation on costs. Other reasons for reluctance were: 1) salary level, 2) taxation, 3) retirement age. Qualified majority is required within Council for the status to be adopted definitively, other than on aspects linked to taxation, where unanimity remains the order of the day.