Tuesday, 14 December 2010 09:17 'There will be no Eurobond, no increases in the EU’s €440bn (£368bn) rescue fund, and no mass purchases of Spanish and Italian bonds by the ECB. Nothing. The system is politically and constitutionally paralysed. Spain and Portugal will be left nakedly exposed before their funding crunch in January. It is entirely predictable that Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy would move so quickly to shoot down last week’s Eurobond proposal, issuing pre-emptive warning before this week’s EU summit that they will not accept “a bundling together of all Europe’s debts”. How can Germany or France agree lightly to plans that amount to an EU debt union, with a common treasury, tax system, and budget policy, the stuff of civil wars and revolutions over the ages? To do so is to dismantle the ancient nation states of Europe in all but name.' Read more: The Eurozone is in Bad Need of an Undertaker EU A backdated salary rise combined with increased allowances means that all 736 European Parliament deputies will receive a New Year's lump sum gift of over £5,400 despite pay freezes and cuts for the voters they represent across the EU. It will take their net personal income to more than £170,000 in 2011. The payment, already dubbed a "Christmas bonus" by European Parliament sources, includes a tax free, cash lump sum of expenses worth £3,096, which be paid into their accounts by January 1, backdated from July 2009. MEPs will be automatically given £90,876 in "daily subsistence" and in "general expenditure" expenses next year without having to provide any receipts or proof of expenditure, an increase of 2.3 per cent. The two allowances are handed out at a flat rate without any requirement to show that any money has been spent by MEPs. The increase in the controversial expenses comes alongside a two per cent pay increase for 2011 that will take the salary of MEPs to £80,829 next year, including a backdated sum of £2,314. The pay rise, which comes at a time of painful austerity cuts for national parliaments, will mean that British MEPs will next year earn £15,000 more than their colleagues in the House of Commons, who enjoyed only a 1.5 per cent rise. While pay and perks payments continue to rise over two per cent for MEPs, official data shows that the average annual salary for a British worker grew by just 0.3 per cent to £25,900 in 2010. Most company directors and chief executives had pay cuts of nearly 14 per cent in the same 2009 to 2010 period. Martin Callanan, leader of the European Conservatives, said that the parliament's administration, known as the "bureau", should not be increasing pay and perks for already generously paid MEPs. "The European Parliament really knows how to shoot itself in the foot. MEPs are not crying out for extra funds in order to do their jobs so why is the parliament's bureau nodding through further increases?" he said. Parliament administrators were last night (MON) expected to rubberstamp the pay rise proposals and increases to allowances. "This is envisaged as a routine indexation," said an official. "This is nothing out of the ordinary." Nigel Farage, Ukip's leader, said: "At a time of austerity, by demanding this pay increase the EU bureaucrats have really stuck the two fingers up to the British taxpayer." Proposals seen by The Daily Telegraph will give MEPs a "daily subsistence" cash payment of £257 for each of the 184 days the parliament sits next year. "General expenditure allowance", which is supposed to help MEPs run their local office, will be increased to £3,627 a month. Both allowances are automatically paid directly into bank accounts belonging to MEPs. Arlene McCarthy, a Labour MEP, defended the increased allowances. "I have to pay more for my accommodation in Strasbourg and Brussels than I did a year ago so it seems only reasonable that the allowance which covers goes up. It is justifiable providing it is genuinely for costs incurred in doing your job as an MEP," she said. But Sian Herbert, of the Open Europe pressure group, criticised the increases to allowances that are paid without receipts to show that MEPs had actually incurred the expenditure. "MEPs are already entitled to generous expenses, far more than their national counterparts. This really does not represent good value for taxpayers," she said. "The sheer amount of money on offer to MEPs increases the incentive to make as much out of the system as possible."
MEPs award themselves £91,000 tax free expenses a year
MEPs will next year take home £91,000 in tax free expenses without having to provide any proof of expenditure as part of an increased pay and perks package.
Tuesday, 14 December 2010
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