Brussels, 10/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - Alongside the adoption of the draft terms and conditions for Members of the European Parliament, the EP Bureau has started looking at new rules governing the reimbursement of MEP expenses. Several Member States want the two issues to be considered together and are calling on the EP to adopt transparent rules to ensure that only expenses actually incurred within an MEP's normal activity are reimbursed, but the proposal currently on the table would enable abuse to continue.
Generous travel expenses
The proposal confirms that receipts must be provided for train and air travel, but MEPs would still be entitled to two return trips mid-week, having to justify that the second place was linked with political activity. The MEP would still be able to have two "normal trips" and travel to other places will be reimbursed if it is not more expensive than the "normal trip". Reimbursement is allowed up to the maximum business class air trip or first class train trip. Road travel would be reimbursed at EUR 0.45 per km. In addition to this there would be long-distance and long-stay allowances. The long-distance allowance would cover travelling to and from the airport or station, parking, motorway charges, reservation costs and excess baggage charges and would be set at EUR 20 for 0 to 50 km, EUR 0.1/km for 51 to 250 km, EUR 0.05/km for 251 to 1000 km and EUR 0.025/km over 1000 km. The long-stay allowance would be EUR 32.13 for 2 to 4 hours, EUR 64.25 for 4 to 6 hours and EUR 128.50 for over 6 hours. Both allowances would be paid for every outward and return trip. Europe has calculated how much a return 500 km car journey (the equivalent of Brussels-Strasbourg) would be worth. In addition to the initial EUR 450 refund there would be a distance allowance of EUR 50 and a long-stay allowance of EUR 128.50, making a total of EUR 628.50. In fact, it would be possible to increase this since the draft rules stipulate that the journey would be made at 70 km per hour, which would obviously make the journey last longer so MEPs would be entitled to EUR 757 for a return trip for which in reality they would drive at 130 km per hour.
New travel allowance
Alongside the annual supplementary trip allowance (EUR 3574) traditionally awarded to enable MEPs to make "study trips", a new allowance would be established to cover the cost of travelling to the Member State where the MEP was elected. This would clearly not benefit Luxembourg MEPs, or the Maltese in the future. It consists of refunding the costs of 24 return journeys (business class flight or first class train ticket) provided the relevant travel documents are provided. This could also cover French MEPs' trips to Paris for political meetings, to summer schools on the Côte d'Azur or trips to the Antilles (Caribbean) or Tahiti. The MEP would only have to make a statement that he or she had actually made the trip as part of his or her duties.
No improvements suggested for other allowances
The current proposal only mentions residence expenses, general expenses, secretarial expenses (which it supposed to enable each MEP to employ two assistants) and language and IT lessons. The rules remain as before, apart from general expenses where the Questors would be asked to recommend that MEPs record their expenses.