16/09/2004 (Agence Europe) - In a press conference on Tuesday in Strasbourg, President Borrell expressed his hope of announcing good news in the coming months on the contacts which will take place between now and then with member states' governments on the draft statute of MEPs, adopted by the Parliament but rejected by the Council. On this matter "the Parliament proposes and the Council arranges", he recalled, confirming that the EP had received no official explanation of the 'no' of some member states. While awaiting clarification, the Parliament will make no new proposals, he said. Mr Borrell did not want to answer a question on the remarks attributed to Hans-Gert Pöttering and Martin Schulz that a move could be made to an "options" system for reimbursements of travel expenses, where the MEPs from some countries (the best paid) would have there actual costs reimbursed, whereas those from countries like Spain and Portugal would receive reimbursements higher than the actual costs incurred to compensate for the their relatively low salaries (which are calculated on the basis of the salaries of national members of parliament).