Milk and honey in the EU parliament

[Trond Andresen <t.andresen@xxxxxxxxxx>]

This is for those who believe in the European parliament as an instrument
for progress for ordinary people in Europe. Not the least for academic (more
or less) left-wingers who dream of a «solidarity» Europe implemented
through the European Union.

I did this interview in the autumn of 1994. The situation is generally the
same today.

**** Quote: ***

The Danish EU parliament member Ib Christensen (64) is retiring after 11 years
in the EU parliament (1978 - 79, 1984 - 1994) for the Danish
No-to-EU-movement, before that 6 years in Folketinget (the Danish parliament).

He has become a millionaire in Danish kroner (1 DKK = 1.10 NOK =  0.148 USD)
through his income from the EU parliament years, in spite of him - and
opposed to most other EU representatives - giving most of his salary
supplements to the NO movement in Denmark.

We will now present a calculation of what a hypothetical Norwegian EU
parliament member can expect to make, and how his/her income will be
composed (all amounts in NOK = 0.135 USD):

Basic salary (corresponds to basic salary in the national
parliament, for Norway?s Storting:) ................................... 287.000
+
Compensation for «general outlays»
(need not be documented, by
Christensen jokingly called «pencil cash» .......... ................ 280.000
+
Travel allowance, which is calculated
based on the beeline distance(!)
from your home town to Strasbourg
or Brussels, amounts to 9.000 per trip
for Christensen, who lives in Randers,
Jutland, Denmark. He buys the
ticket for 2.700, giving a net profit of
6.300 per trip. Christensen estimates
50 trips per year (conservative estimate)
for an EU parlamentarian. For him
this sums up to a surplus of  315.000.
For a prospective Norwegian parliament
representative we (conservatively) assume
50% more distance, which then gives
315.000 * 1.5 =...................................................................470.000
+
Per diem money when travelling is 1.700.
Assuming an honest person that demands
compensation for 100 days away from home
per year, and actual outlays per day = 700,
we get a surplus of .............................................................100.000
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

= Total gross income........................................................1.137.000


Note that the only taxable part of this income is the basic salary (in
Norway 287.000). A careful estimate is then that income after tax is > 1
million NOK per year.

Christensen says that one easily saves up 1 millon NOK through 2 years in
the EU-parliament.

He say that over the years, on 10 occations, he and some other
representatives have proposed to change the regulations so that
representatives only receive remuneration for actual expenses that are
documented. These proposals have been overwhelmingly voted down, against
60 -70 votes, in a parliament of 567 representatives.

Furthermore, he tells of how comittee meetings sometimes are held in places
like Madeira, the Canary Islands, Rhodos, which of course increases the
distance component of travel remuneration spectacularly. Example: For a
comittee meeting on the Canary Islands (Spanish territory, west of North
Africa), the sum of distance and per diem remuneration for him was 23.000
DKK. He used 4.000 DKK for a charter ticket (this is a very busy tourist
destination) for himself and his wife, and pocketed 19.000 in tax-free surplus.

German EU parlamentarians - living for instance in Berlin - travel for free
within Germany having the same perks as members of the German Parliament
(Bundestag). But they still receive full distance compensation from the EU,
so this is double remuneration. A corresponding state of affairs in Denmark
was considered unacceptable when the public was told about it, and it was
ended there. For Greek EU parliamentarians the EU distance remuneration is
an extreme gravy train due to Greece?s eastern geographical position in
Europe, and their standards of living are on another planet compared to
ordinary Greek citizens.

Christensen says that it is quite common for EU parliamentarians to drop in
on a comittee meeting and leave again at once, after having  signed up as a
«participant». This entitles them to 1700 NOK for each «participation». This
is not illegal, and no one exercises formal control. But in an extreme case
there was public outcry, when the media dug up the story about a notorious
Belgian EU representative, who signed up for participation in a meeting
every day during a year to get this compensation.

**** Unquote: ***

So far Christensen.

What sort of system is it, when the EU parliament allows this rotten state
of affairs to persist, and even resist obviously reasonable proposals (10
attempts!) to reform it? What does such a system do with possibly honest and
idealist (at least initially) representatives?

A «social Europe» through the European Union???
Give me a break.

Trond Andresen