I
shouldn't say this, but the expenses here are fabulous
Daniel Hannan
Telegraph - 19/10/2003
There is incredulity in Brussels that Iain
Duncan Smith is being investigated over the employment of his
wife. It is quite normal for Euro-MPs to keep friends and family
on their payroll, and no one is ever so indiscreet as to ask whether
they actually work.
I wish I could tell you that the
practice is confined to continentals, but as far as I can establish
a clear majority of British MEPs also employ immediate family
members. In fact, we're rather famous for it. A French MEP once
remarked: "What is it about you English? You employ your
wives, and you sleep with your staff."
Let me add immediately that many Euro-wives
are conscientious assistants who deserve every penny they get.
But the point is that they don't need to be: no one ever checks.
The Court of Auditors did once try to establish who the MEPs were
employing - colleagues still shudder at the memory - but no one
has ever asked whether these employees earn their salaries.
The sums involved make Westminster look
positively Lilliputian. Our staff allowance is €12,305 (£8,620)
a month - enough to employ a genuine secretary, and a research
assistant, and still have 50 or 60 grand left over for the missus.
The idea of auditing any of these expenses
strikes many Euro-MPs as sacrilegious - "an assault on the
dignity of our office" as an Italian friend grandly put it.
So everything is done on the basis of no receipts, no invoices.
The most outrageous case is the travel allowance, whereby MEPs
get the equivalent of a full fare plus 20 per cent regardless
of how they actually make the journey. If you're prepared to fly
Ryanair from Stansted, you can easily trouser £600 a week
- tax free, of course, since it counts as expenses, not income.
The same applies to our "general expenses
allowance" (£2,540 a month) which is meant to cover
petrol, postage and the like, but which several members find convenient
to have paid directly into their current accounts.
Ditto the £180 daily attendance rate.
In theory, this is meant to pay for accommodation and meals. But
most of us have flats in Brussels, and you can always sub-let
a room to your assistant for a surprisingly high rate which you
happen to make up to him through your staff allowance. This would
allow you to keep another £900 a week in more or less clear
profit. (Forget paying for meals: whenever you're hungry, you
just stretch out your arm and hail a passing lobbyist.)
Why am I telling you all this? It certainly
won't make me many friends. When I touched on the expenses system
once before, I was sent to Coventry - or "sent to Limoges",
as amused French MEPs called it. But I feel that it is important
to look at the practice of Europe, not just the theory.
As Euro-enthusiasts muster in defence of
the new constitution, we are once again being treated to some
rather uplifting rhetoric about peace and democracy and so forth.
To quote the document itself: "The Union is founded on the
indivisible, universal values of human dignity, freedom, equality
and solidarity."
Yet behind these phrases is the reality
of the Brussels system: the sacking of whistleblowers, the Eurostat
scandal, the Committee of the Regions affair, the self-righteous
bureaucracy, the complacent Commissioners. And where are the MEPs,
supposedly the people's tribunes? Why, awarding themselves an
additional perk of £35 a week to pay for any taxis that
they may be forced to use when the limousine service stops running
at 10pm.
Again, let me stress that many MEPs are
scrupulous about their accounts, and some of them - notably the
Tory budgets wonk, Chris Heaton-Harris - have been relentless
in exposing sleaze. But the regime itself, despite ritual promises
of reform, remains as rotten as ever. So when you are next told
that the Euro-constitution "will strengthen democracy in
Europe", bear in mind exactly whom you are being invited
to strengthen.
Daniel Hannan is a Conservative MEP
for South East England
