Derek Scally
in Berlin
A planned MEP pay rise that would see the salary of Irish MEPs rise by nearly 50 per cent could be vetoed by Berlin because it may breach the German constitution.
The planned standardisation of MEP salaries would see the basic salary of an Irish MEP increase from €73,914 to €108,636 per annum, four times the average Irish income and even higher than the salary of an Irish cabinet minister.
The revelation comes as a German academic publishes a paper today arguing that misleading figures and blackmail were employed to get the pay rise passed.
The pay rise was agreed before Christmas when the European Parliament passed a "Members' Statute" which links MEP salaries to half that of the salary of judges in the European Court, and tightens up procedures for claiming expenses.
However, Berlin may be forced to veto the statute at a meeting of the Council of Ministers later this month.
A spokesman for the the Foreign Ministry in Berlin declined to comment when contacted about the veto claim, made in a report in today's Der Spiegel magazine. A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said last night it would be seeking to promote agreement on the package and that it believed the deal was an acceptable package of measures to bring the matter to a conclusion.
The report referred to a 1995 attempt to link the salaries of MPs and judges.
The law fell because it breached Article 48 of the German constitution, which explicitly states that salaries of MPs must be regulated by a special salary law.
Meanwhile, a German academic, in a paper published today, has called for the statute to be stopped by the Council of Ministers.
Prof Hans Herbert von Arnim of the German University for Administration Science said that an MEP's monthly salary will be €9,053 and not €8,600 as previously claimed. He says that trying to stamp out expenses fraud by paying people even more money is nonsense.
"The parliament pledges to rectify prevailing irregularities concerning travel costs to and from Strasbourg or Brussels, but only if the Council consents to the statute - a case of blackmailing," says Prof von Arnim.
"This misuse should have been remedied long ago. Using it to establish an even greater misuse is completely unacceptable."
Linking the salaries of MEPs and judges is unfair, he argues, because, unlike judges, many MEPs have a second source of income. Prof von Arnim cites Mr Elmar Brok, the German MEP, who earns an estimated €200,000 annually as a lobbyist for the German media group Bertelsmann.
Mr Pat Cox, the president of the European Parliament, was a driving force behind the statute, calling for more transparency on pay and expenses and equal pay for equal work to end huge pay discrepancies between MEPs.
"It's very interesting that this fact about the German constitution is being rolled out at the last minute. We can only hope Germany can sort out this issue," said the spokesman for Mr Cox.
At the moment, MEPs are paid widely varied salaries.
The Italians are the best paid, earning nearly €132,000 annually, while Spanish MEPs are paid just over €36,000. MEPs from accession states would, after this new pay rise, earn more than their prime ministers.
On top of their salary, MEPs receive generous expenses from the EU, including a €257 daily allowance for subsistence and overnight accommodation.
MEPs are reimbursed for weekly travel to the parliament through a fixed "distance allowance" that amounts to more than the equivalent business class rate, even if the MEP travelled with a low-cost airline.