European Parliament to tighten rules on MEP staff allowances

The European Parliament has decided to introduce new rules aimed at cutting widespread abuse of allowances by MEPs in the employment of staff.

The new rules will come into force following next year's European parliamentary elections.

MEPs will be banned from employing close relatives as part of their staff. Currently this is quite common among MEPs, particularly British, who put their wives and children on their staff list.

All MEPs receive a monthly allowance of €15,500 in order to employ staff both in their home country and in Brussels. An internal European Parliament audit report drawn up a few months ago showed that many MEPs were abusing the system. Many MEP assistants were living illegally under Parliament's umbrella, without paying taxes or social charges, and were also in many cases chronically underpaid by their bosses.

The undisclosed audit also found that large proportions of the €15,500 that each MEP receives each month to pay staff often found its way back into MEPs' pockets through a variety of dubious schemes.

Under the new scheme, MEPs will remain free to hire whoever they want to as assistants but will no longer be allowed to employ family members.

Another measure is that assistants' contracts will be managed by certified paying agents while the fiscal and social security aspects of employment contracts will now also be properly addressed.

As before, Parliament's services will audit the accounts annually and failure to comply with internal rules or with national legislation, in the case of assistants working in a member state, will lead to suspension of the payments and recovery of the amounts unduly paid.

These new rules were approved this week by the bureau of the European Parliament following proposals made by Parliament's President Hans Gert Pottering.

The new rules are to enter into force in July 2009 after the European elections, at the same time as the new single statute for MEPs.

Among other things, this statute provides for new rules on travel expenses, which will only be reimbursed based on actual cost, and a fixed salary for all MEPs amounting to about €7,000 monthly.