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Perks Up
The noses-in-the-trough free for all that is the EU parliament's expenses scheme continues to raise a stink. Today's Herald Tribune carries a long article on the extent of these scams, which some commentators now claim is "running out of control."
Certainly, it looks like the parliament is dragging its feet about reforming the expenses structure, which can add 100,000 Euros a year to the average MEP's salary. Austrian MEP and former journalist Hans-Peter Martin, who has filmed around 1,500 hours of tape of his colleagues' abuses of the system, not to mention their boasts of how much they can scam from taxpayers, has found himself booted out of Socialist group meetings for his trouble.
Two top scams are covered in some detail. The first, and most infamous, is the "signing in" scam - surely up there with emails from odd Nigerian gentlemen for its blatant dishonesty. MEPs are paid expenses by the day. However, they only need to sign in each morning: Nothing prevents MEPs claiming expenses for a day's work when in fact they have only attended to mark their names on a list at 8.00 am. 262 Euros in the bank - ker-ching! - and the MEP jumps in a taxi (weekly cab allowance: 50 Euros) to rush to the airport.
At the airport, the second scam comes into play. This is an even bigger earner than the attendance scam.
MEPs are reimboursed the highest price of an economy fare ticket, no matter what they actually pay. So MEPs regularly travel cheaply, while claiming full fare - which is often ten times the rate they have actually paid.
Here's the IHT, on a swindling Finnish Socialist:
"Last week, for example, the Travelocity Web site offered a round trip between Helsinki and Brussels on Brussels Airlines for about E200. But under Parliament's compensation rate, (the MEP), judging from the most recent figures obtained by the Herald Tribune and The Times, would have been reimbursed for a fare of roughly E1,700, and also for another E357 for traveling more than 1,500 kilometers.
Ker-ching!
And what is the European parliament doing to fight this corruption and waste?
On recent form, little else but facilitating yet more swindling. MEPs get 5000 Euros a year to put towards language classes to help cope with the influx of new member states - but do they really need two free flights to EU destinations to "immerse themselves" in the language, never mind the 131 Euros daily allowance for this mini-break?
And the 150,000 Euros a year secretarial allowance, which some MEPs use to employ their families? (Shamefully, this practice seems widespread among British MEPs: Ian Paisley of Northern Ireland keeps his wife and two sons in Euro-work.)
And as for the signing in scam: Hans-Peter Martin filmed one Irish MEP grumbling that the signing in office wasn't open on time, and he risked losing his daily allowance which he planned to claim before catching the first plane home.
The Parliament's solution? Registration hours now begin at 7.00 am, a full hour earlier. So even MEPs from the EU's most far-flung nations can be sipping gin back home by early afternoon, having claimed a full day's expenses from the long-suffering European taxpayer.
