MEPs urged to cut out graft

The European Parliament, whose leaders are anxious to set an example to national assemblies by eliminating sleaze, will ask MEPs on Thursday to vote to cut their own expenses.

The Socialist group, the majority party in the parliament, has calculated that MEPs could shave pounds 395,000 a year off the joint taxi bill, pounds 553,000 from mileage claims for car travel and pounds 4m in foreign trips.

'We should, of course, reimburse MEPs for costs incurred in the course of parliamentary business but those costs should not be excessive,' said the group leader, Labour MEP Pauline Green.

The parliament is often portrayed as a gravy train, partly because the publicity machines of the two principal groups can score easy political points by drawing attention to the abuses that do occur from time to time.

But with the sleaze factor now a serious political issue in many EU member states, the European Parliament is determined not to make itself an easy target.

Calculating the European Union's 1995 budget has been a more complicated process than usual because of the prolonged row over Italy's refusal to cut back milk production.

The dispute was resolved at the end of last week when Rome agreed to pay a record fine for exceeding its milk quota, provided the EU increased that quota retrospectively. Until the row was solved, national governments had refused to ratify a decision that national budget contributions be increased to cover the EU's extra expenditure.

As a result, the budget has had to be drafted according to 1994 provisions, creating a shortfall of some pounds 471m.

MEPs are paid at a rate that is commensurate with the salaries earned by national parliamentarians.

The British delegation comes well down in the ranking, with an MEP earning about pounds 30,000 a year. On top of that there is a daily allowance of pounds 159 for every day that an MEP is away from home on parliamentary business, which is meant to cover hotels, meals and additional extras.