The European Parliament's 732 members were accused on Tuesday of endorsing virtual embezzlement after throwing out proposals to control their allowances and pension pots.
The Members of European Parliament (MEPs), meeting in Strasbourg, rejected in a series of votes any public control or scrutiny of their generous expenses, including plans to post their office allowances on the Internet and ban the use of parliamentary funds to pay back their private pension contributions.
Chris Davies, the UK Liberal Democrat MEP who has led a campaign to reform the allowances system, said the latter was "tantamount to embezzlement." British MEPs of all parties overwhelmingly voted for the reforms but were outgunned by a combination of Christian Democrats and socialists, together with poorly paid MEPs from new EU countries.
The votes, largely 3-2 against reform, are likely to reinforce the impression among Europe's 450 million citizens that the parliament is a gravy train for politicians and that the EU is a byword for slack financial controls and even corruption.
The MEPs' basic salaries range from upwards of 12,000 euros (US$15,530) a month in Italy, the highest-paid, to 800 euros a month in Lithuania and Estonia, with Britain's 78 earning the same as Member's of Parliament at London -- £57,485 (US$108,840) a year.
MEPs have a more generous pension scheme than British members of parliament, with around two-thirds (485) opting into a special European parliament fund which pays in double the £664 a month the MEPs themselves contribute.
In addition, they get a Brussels-Strasbourg allowance of around £180 a day (depending on exchange rates) toward accommodation and subsistence costs, but they have to sign in to register their presence. They have banned TV crews from filming this daily "ceremony," especially on non-working days.
The MEPs on Tuesday also voted 354-264 against plans to rein in their travel costs, set under a system pre-dating the rise of low-cost airlines. Davies said the arrangement enabled some MEPs to make a tax-free surplus of £10,000 a year. One disgruntled political official, who asked not to be named, said:
"I'm not going to defend the indefensible, but we need absolute clarity about the upfront figures before any legal assessment of the proposals."
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