Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-28-Speech-3-035"
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"en.20010228.4.3-035"2
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". – Mr President, I think the honourable Member will benefit immensely from seeing the highly readable documents which were considered for consultation by the Commission today. I take great pride in the fact that our institution has, in a full and very exact account, set out everything there is to be said about the salaries, the career structure, and the allowance systems that have been available to European civil servants. I hope and I know that there are those who have this ambition that all institutions can emulate that practice and do so with great rapidity.
As far as cars without VAT are concerned, expatriate workers working for all the European institutions have the right, granted to them by the Belgian Government, to purchase certain goods, including cars, free of value-added tax in the first twelve months after they are engaged and at no time after that. So far as the allowances are concerned, there has at present been a provision available to European civil servants since the 1960s which allows them to make transfers of parts of their salaries to their home countries. It originated because of the difficult and expensive business of making international financial transfers. However, over the years obviously transfers have become extremely easy. The real problem arises from the fact that a co-efficient was built in as a means of providing compensation because of variations between the different currencies of Member States. That has resulted in an imbalance of compensation which is why the system now makes heavy demands, or heavier than justifiable demands, on the budget and why we will bring it to an end.
The same thing applies to travel allowances established in the 1950s on the basis of the first-class rail fare of an official at least once a year, or even twice a year, to their home country. That was one thing when there were six Member States with contiguous boundaries and railway systems connecting them. That has changed somewhat. Consequently, a system that allows people to claim first-class rail fare twice a year to different parts of the European Union is no longer justifiable. We are radically changing that and bringing it into line with modern travel realities.
I hope that custom will also be emulated."@en1
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