§ Mr. SteinbergTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what payments are made to European Members of Parliament for(a) salary, (b) office, research and secretarial allowances, (c) daily allowances for attending meetings on parliamentary business and (d) allowance per mile for travel on parliamentary business, expressed in (i) pounds sterling and (ii) European currency units.
§ Mr. BrookeThe European Assembly (Pay and Pensions) Act 1979 stipulates that salary payable to United Kingdom Members of the European Parliament shall be the same as a member of this Parliament's ordinary salary (currently £24,107) except that, where an MEP is also a member of this Parliament, he or she will receive only one third of that salary in addition to his or her Member of Parliament's salary. The Act also stipulates that the salary be paid into a United Kingdom bank account in sterling.
The European Parliament has laid down a number of allowances for its Members to defray the expenses which they incur in the performance of their parliamentary duties. These allowances are as follows at 1 January 1989 (sterling rates are approximate and will vary with exchange rate fluctuations; the rates used here are based on the average for 1988: £1.0 = ecu 1.51):
(1) General Expenditure Allowances
- Ecu 2,246 per month (£ sterling 1,487). This allowance is intended to defray, for example, Members' expenses on office management costs, telephone, postage and travel within their member state. In respect of Members who, for no valid reason, have failed to attend half the number of plenary sittings, the allowance is halved.
(2) Secretarial-Assistance Allowance
- Up to ecu 3,635 (£ sterling 2,407) per month. This allowance is intended to defray the expenses arising from the employment or the engagement of the services of one or more assistants. It is paid only upon production of supporting contracts.
(3) Subsistence Allowance
- The daily allowances are:
- (a) For travel within the Community 156 ecu (£ sterling 103).
- (b) For travel outside the Community 78 ecu (£ sterling 52).
(4) Travel Allowance
- (a) For official travel within the Community:
- 0.6 ecu (40 pence) per km (1 km = 0.62 miles) for the first 400 km of both inward and outward journeys;
- and
- 0.32 ecu (21 pence) per km thereafter.
- (b) For official travel outside the Community:
- return air fare by the most direct route on presentation of the ticket, plus a lump sum travel allowance (as at (a) above) in respect of the journey between the point of departure and the nearest international airport.