Euro-MPs vote EUR 1,500 monthly raise for office expenses
(BRUSSELS) - Lawmakers in the 736-member European Parliament voted Thursday to give themselves an extra 1,500 euros each per month for staff and office expenses, a decision the Greens slammed as "wrong-headed" in a time of austerity.
The decision will increase the overall parliament budget by almost 13.25 million euros this year.
Greens budgetary spokeswoman Helga Truepel said lawmakers were "clearly out of touch with fiscal realities" and said the "irresponsible vote sends completely the wrong signal" to cash-strapped people across the continent.
The decision was backed by Euro MPs from the left and the right of the European political spectrum.
European Union institutions have been locked in a losing battle with the bloc's 27 member states, which successfully chopped in half a planned increase for 2011 under pressure from British Prime Minister David Cameron.
The states are also pushing for inflation-only increases over the remainder of the decade, with huge cuts sought in operating expenses for the EU's myriad institutions in the 2012 budget, affecting trips, meetings and research regularly criticised by eurosceptics for ploughing millions into securing commonsense conclusions.
EU administrative costs for 2011 are expected to hit 8.3 billion euros, or 5.7 percent of a total budget running to 126.5 billion euros.
European Parliament MPs are paid 7,956.87 euros gross per month, with another 19,709 euros already set aside before the increase for staff and other office expenses.
The parliament meanwhile said it "should" restrict its own budget in 2012, entering a "consolidation phase" with no increase in 2012 beyond inflation.
"We must not exceed inflation... We would like a savings budget," said Portuguese conservative Jose Manuel Fernandes, who is leading parliament preparations for its 2012 sums.