Nieuwe acties europarlementariërs om geldverslindend imago EP te wijzigen (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A group of MEPs hoping to reform the gravy-train image of the European Parliament have re-launched their campaign for the next five years.

Going under the name 'Campaign for Parliament Reform' (CPR), 100 MEPs on Tuesday (11 January) pledged to work together to support internal reform in the EU assembly.

"The challenges in the new enlarged European Parliament are even greater than before", said UK Conservative MEP Chris Heaton-Harris.

That circus

Their main gripe is the fact that there are two seats for the European Parliament - in Brussels and Strasbourg.

The Strasbourg house is used just 12 times per year and MEPs resent the monthly trek to the Alsatian capital.

It is expensive, too.

A report last year by the European Parliament's Secretary-General estimated the cost of maintaining three places of work - the administrative part of the parliament sits in Luxembourg - at over 200 million euro per year.

However, actually scrapping the Strasbourg seat would require all member states to agree, France included. The antipathy of the French government to this idea is also mirrored among French MEPs - not one has signed up to CPR.

Expenses

The other main issue for reform is the MEPs expenses system. Currently, MEPs are reimbursed for trips to Brussels and Strasbourg - but not for the actual cost incurred.

This means that a German MEP living in Berlin could fly from Berlin to Brussels for less than 200 euro but may claim 1,041 euro in expenses.

However, Margot Lotz, a spokesperson for CPR said she did not know how many of the reform-minded MEPs are receiving expenses on the basis of actual costs occured. "Certainly, most of our core member [six MEPs] do it".

She also said that the number who have signed up - just 100 of the 732 MEPs - does not reflect the amount of support the campaign has.

"I reckon we would have tacit support from a majority of the European Parliament", she said adding that their busy schedules made some reluctant to commit themselves to the campaign.

The highest number of MEPs that have signed up to the CPR come from The Netherlands (70%), Finland (43%) and the UK (36%).

Concretely, CPR want to pass resolutions calling for reform in order to put pressure on EU governments, which have been bickering for years with MEPs about the reform of their pay system.