Brussels, 25/02/2008 (Agence Europe) - A report by the European Parliament's internal auditor, presented last week, points to irregularities in the system for payment of MEPs' assistants. The report looks at the €16,000 allocated each month to each of the 784 MEPs for paying their assistants and analyses a sample of 167 payments and their supporting documents from 2004 and 2005.
According to a Parliament press release, the report does not reveal any cases of individual fraud. It does, however, fuel arguments of those who seek a complete overhaul of the system. Thus, EP Secretary General Harald Romer should soon present a single European system for the recruitment and management of staff working under MEPs. Nonetheless, the latter will maintain their right to select their own personnel. This new centralised system may take effect immediately after the EP elections in June 2009, at the same time as the new Statute for MEPs.
The internal auditor has confirmed that there are concerns about the system of staff employment by MEPs. The system has become far too complex with three different types of contracts and 27 different national taxation, social security and administrative systems. Some assistants are employed in their countries of origin, others in Brussels. They sign either a direct contract with the EP or with a service provider.
“When some colleagues from the new EU member states earn a salary of under €1,000 per month in their country of origin, and then they receive over €16,000 per month from the European Parliament for paying their assistants, it is clear there are redistribution channels behind this”, one MEP said, whose remarks were taken up in an AFP press release. The auditor has, according to an MEP cited by AFP, come up with evidence that, in some cases, the service provider does not exist and that sometimes the elected representative employs members of his own family. (L.C.)