Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-06-02-Speech-1-067"
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"en.20030602.6.1-067"2
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"It is now five years since Parliament embarked upon the negotiations concerning the Statute and, for some of my fellow MEPs, this is a significant political process that, at one and the same time, secures Parliament’s power and legitimacy, with Parliament’s right to adopt its own statute an expression of a federal, European democracy. For others, however, it is a farce of almost surrealistic dimensions.
Behind the democratic principles of parliamentary self-determination, we in fact find another agenda, one as prosaic as MEPs’ personal financial interests. It is difficult to make democratic principles credible when the real agenda is MEPs’ own money.
This Parliament has no impressive, democratic legitimacy to begin with. The turnout in every single election has been low. In a democracy as rich in tradition as Sweden’s, turnout at the most recent election was less than 35%, and in the UK was less than 24%. I can assure you that this shaky legitimacy would be further undermined through the adoption of the proposed Statute. At least in the Nordic countries, people find it completely baffling that the Members of this Parliament are to be paid significantly more than national parliamentarians, especially when we are also safeguarding the possibility of maintaining or reintroducing the absurd expense systems which, in the Nordic countries, have been central subjects of criticism. Certainly, the Praesidium decided last week that travel expenses would be reimbursed as per account rendered, but Article 29 states clearly that the current absurd systems can be reintroduced.
I would also observe that the issue of the national taxation of remuneration has now entered its final phase. At least for the Nordic governments, that is a crucial issue. The point is, of course, that national taxation would possibly be in conflict with EU law, and so the problem has not been solved.
Those of us in the Danish People’s Movement are unable to cooperate."@en1
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