MEPs Pay and Expenses

What should a lawmaker be paid?  Should it be as much as an NHS doctor (average £122,000) or just the statutory minimum wage, the salary of a senior local government official (£100,000+) or of an average local government employee?  The judgement will inevitably be subjective.

I believe that the salary and rate of allowances paid to MEPs should be determined by a body independent of themselves.  I also believe that MEPs should publish annually a declaration of ALL monies they have received from public sources.  The current rates for allowances paid bears little relation to costs actually incurred and are excessive in my view.  In the absence of independent assessment I will vote for them to be cut.

Of course, whatever salary rate is set MEPs will always be criticised and will always be tarred by the same brush.  In reality, elected representatives at every level define their own priorities and have their own principles. Some achieve a lot, others not much at all.  Some will have been paid more before their election, but most were probably paid a good deal less.  Some MPs and MEPs have jobs in addition to their parliamentary ones. Some may stretch the rules governing payment of allowances for their own financial benefit while others resist the temptation. The standards of one should not be taken as representative of all.

At the time of writing the euro is strong against the pound, but I believe that over the longer term Britain's 72 European lawmakers receive on average a personal income quite a bit less than the salary paid to the average local doctor.

It takes specific qualifications to become a doctor, and while many lawmakers (including myself) would argue that it has taken decades of application to get ourselves into the positions we now hold the fact is our jobs are open to anyone. If you don't like the way we (or I) do it then you are free to mount your own challenge by putting your name forward as a candidate in the European elections.   All you have to do then is to win.  Maybe you can do that by winning the support of party members to get yourself to the top of a party list at election time, or maybe you can do it by establishing your name and reputation in other ways.  The critics are free to have a go at getting elected themselves

 RECENT CHANGES

With effect from 14 July 2009, the beginning of the new parliamentary term, significant changes were introduced in accord with the so-called Members Statute.  These include payment of a common salary to all MEPs without regard to their nationality (formerly MEPs were paid the same as their national equivalents at rates which varied hugely, from €149,000 in Italy to €24,000 in Lithuania), a single pension scheme and abolition of the voluntary (second) pension scheme, and replacement of a travel payment scheme which paid fixed rates for journeys without regard to the actual cost of tickets by payment on production of receipts supplemented by so-called distance and duration allowances.

At the same time new controls have been introduced on the use of the budget intended for the employment of staff which SHOULD end the abuses of previous years which saw some MEPs of some nationalities using part or all of this money to supplement their family incomes – a practice that in extreme, unethical and sometimes criminal cases could have increased an MEP’s family income by €1 million over a 5-year term. 

Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative MEPs are also now required to go further than the Parliament demands in publicly accounting for the use of their allowances.

The European Parliament's official page about expenses.

So what do you get if you are elected?

SALARY:

MEPs are now paid a salary fixed at the rate of 38.5% of the basic salary of a judge serving on the European Court of Justice.  Currently it amounts to €91,983pa.

When the vote was taken in the European Parliament in 2005 the salary rate fixed would have represented for British MEPs a REDUCTION on the salaries they were then being paid.  However, since then the value the pound has plummeted while the euro has stayed strong.  At current exchange rates  this means that MEPs are paid considerably more than MPs.  With a euro worth 90p the value of an MEPs’ salary is £82,785.  However, if the exchange rate returns to the level that existed at the time of the euro’s launch (73p) the salary will be worth £67,148 – similar to the £64,766 paid to MPs at Westminster.

Taxes are deducted by the European Parliament  at a lower 'community rate' than that in Britain, but it is believed that all British MEPs have opted to pay a supplementary tax plus national insurance to ensure that in practice they will pay tax in accordance with the same rules as apply to their constituents. I certainly have.

It should be noted, however, that the new MEPs’ pension fund is non-contributory.  All payments to it are made from the Parliament’s budget and none at all are deducted from the salary of MEPs.  Hundreds of millions of people would love to be in a similar position! 

AWAY FROM HOME ‘SUBSISTENCE’:

MEPs receive a Brussels/Strasbourg allowance of €298 per day towards accommodation and subsistence costs. To obtain this they must sign a register anytime between the hours of 7am and 11pm on working days to indicate that they have been in the Parliament building for all or part of each day.  Payment of this allowance is clearly related to actual attendance, but it is not uncommon for MEPs to sign the register on arriving late at night or early in the morning before departing for their home state.  My own rule of thumb is not to make such a claim unless I am present in the Parliament during the time that a plenary session is taking place or when committees are sitting (9am-6.30pm in the case of the latter). 

I live relatively inexpensively in Brussels, and the daily allowance more than covers my costs. However, I have checked the prices of the principal hotels close to the Parliament and the €298 daily allowance would not be sufficient for a night's stay with breakfast and evening meal.

ANCILLARY BENEFITS

Life and accident insurance, medical insurance, payment towards language and computer tuition (if ever used).

TRAVEL:

Since June 2009, MEPs have been reimbursed at cost for the price of their tickets up to business travel rates and first class rail fares.  This new arrangement ends the former practice that made payments based on fixed rates linked to distance travelled that usually far exceeded the actual price of the ticket by hundreds of euros.  However, although this will represent a significant reduction in the supplement to MEPs’ income the actual reform is not as extensive as many had anticipated.

It seems to have come as a genuine surprise to most MEPs that under the new arrangements they are paid in addition to fare reimbursements ‘duration’ and ‘distance’ allowances.  Calculating these from the formula laid down is complicated, but they far exceed any incidental costs (eg. airport car parking) likely to be incurred.  The actual amounts paid will vary from one member to another, but in my case they amount to a total of some €250 when the Parliament meets in Brussels and €350 when it meets in Strasbourg.

In addition, MEPs can submit claims for car journeys in their own countries up to a maximum distance of 24,000 km annually at the rate of €0.49/km.  Given the payment of ‘distance’ and ‘duration’ allowances mentioned above I shall not make any such claims.

On production of proof of purpose and on production of receipts, MEPs may claim up to €4000 annually towards the cost of travel and accommodation when making journeys outside their own country in connection with the performance of their duties.  I have used some of this budget in the past when, for example, I visited Switzerland to interview people whose views were later recorded in a pamphlet I wrote on that country’s laws on medically associated suicide.

STAFF COSTS:

The North West of England is a multi-member European constituency represented by eight MEPs. It has a population of nearly 7 million, includes a total of 75 Westminster single seat constituencies, and is bigger in terms of numbers than 11 of the 27 EU nations.

The European Parliament pays allowances totalling £175,800 pa per British MEP towards the cost of employing staff.  Since June 2009 it has not been permissible for MEPs to employ members of their own family UNLESS they were doing so before the rule change was introduced.

I use my allowance to employ four full time staff working partly in Brussels but mostly in Stockport (office manager/financial administrator and diary controller; parliamentary legislation assistant; campaigns and communications officer; political and casework officer) and some part time staff and student researchers on an occasional basis. My assistant in Brussels is employed directly by the Parliament.  Contracts of employment for all my UK-based staff are deposited with the parliamentary authorities.

I do not employ any member of my family and have never done so. No part of this allowance goes to me by way of additional personal income.

GENERAL OFFICE MANAGEMENT COSTS:

MEPs this year (2009) have an office costs allowance of £42,144 pa.  My budget is administered by my office manager and is used exclusively to pay for the costs of my office in Stockport, including rent, rates, equipment, stationery, postage, telephone and other communications, and for some supplies and equipment in my parliamentary offices.

The European Parliament does not require MEPs to produce receipts to justify use of this money.  However,  the major British political parties all demand that their members have the accounts verified by an accountant annually (details of mine below).

GENERAL EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT 2009

Audited by Sinclair Accountancy of Liverpool (no personal connection with Chris Davies or any member of his staff)

No part of this allowance goes to Chris Davies by way of additional personal income.

*The North West Liberal Democrats regional party rents space in the same set of offices.

Staff

Chris employs 6 members of staff.

None of Chris's staff are related to Chris

Chris's published receipts can be found here.

Paying Agent

The Paying Agent for Chris Davies MEP is David Treadway of Sinclair Accountancy, 298 St Mary's Road, Liverpool, L19 0NQ

REGISTER OF INTERESTS

The European Parliament maintains a register of MEPs' financial interests that can be read at the parliament's offices in Brussels or Strasbourg. In most cases entries are available online (European Parliament website, 'YOUR MEPs') but these are at the discretion of members.

There are NO rules or guidelines to indicate what information MEPs should provide. The entries they make are entirely at their own discretion. The register is open to severe criticism in that it fails to ensure the transparency necessary to determine whether a member may have financial interests in a matter upon which they may speak or vote.

EXPENSES PAID TO CHRIS DAVIES IN 2009

The following is a statement of the expenses paid to Chris Davies during 2009. The information is provided by the Parliament's Directorate-General for Finance and is presented here in the complex style in which it arrives.

Please note that the European Parliament regards this information as highly confidential. As a matter of routine it is not even provided to the MEPs concerned (!), rather an individual application has to be made to obtain it. The European Ombudsman made clear on 14 July 2008 that failure to publish this information amounted to maladministration, but the Parliament (or to be accurate the Parliament's 'Bureau') has refused to change its position.

A scan of the document from the European parliament confirming the above figures can be found here

Page Revision History

14th July 2009 - Added link to new Declaration of interests at the European Parliament.

29th July 2009 - Margarida Matias leaves employ of Chris Davies MEP and is removed from staff list.

17th August - Sarah Deblock added to staff members list as new Parliamentary Assistant.

21st August - Text changed to take account of the fact that the new parliamentary term has started and therefore a number of new arrangements have been put in place.

25th September 2009 - Major rewrite to text to reflect new arrangements for MEPs and MPs.

2nd October 2009 - Changes to opening statement and subsistence allowance section (commentary only)

8th Feb 2010 - Added a link to the European Parliament's official expenses page.

26th February 2010 - Updated 2008 expenses figures with 2009 expenses figures for parliamentary allowances