Every month the staff and Members of the European Parliament shuttle between Brussels and Strasbourg like a “travelling circus”. The annual expenses of this historical symbolism amount to almost 200 million Euros. Because of the ash cloud several MEPs did not travel to Strasbourg this week. They sent numerous e-mails of complaint during the weekend, demanding the cancellation of sessions or the postponement of voting. Although all the European citizens had been aware of this problem for days, the European Parliament did not react, either at the weekend or the days before. The President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek informed the MEPs, as late as Monday night, of the postponement of the voting and the cancellation of the plenary session on Thursday.
The decision was made in favour of an unnecessary and expensive compromise solution that came too late. A complete cancellation of the sessions could have at least saved the expenses of the “travelling circus”. This way one can neither save money nor carry out the necessary voting, for instance on the urgent resolution about the disputed SWIFT agreement just one day before the meeting of the EU’s Ministers of Home Affairs. Nobody seems to care about the expense. Therefore the President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek stressed yesterday in his declaration on the cancellation of the plenary session, scheduled for Thursday: “We have no agenda and we do not work on Thursday” nevertheless “on Thursday as well as on Friday you can sign in for the daily allowances.” This means that each MEP is allowed to cash 298 Euro non-taxable daily allowances each day.
On Friday during the plenary session some colleagues usually turn up in the European Parliament in Strasbourg in the morning just to sign up for the daily allowances and depart right away (Video). In order to put an end to this practice it would be necessary to define an exact attendance time frame. If an MEP falls short of this limit, no daily allowance should be disbursed. If an MEP signed in at the beginning of a day and signed out at the end, this problem would quickly be solved. Only those, who actually do some work in the European Parliament, should receive a daily allowance. The code of ethics of the “Liste Martin” foresees cutting all daily allowances on Fridays in general.
