European Union

April 30, 2007

EURO-MPs are on a collision course with open information watchdogs after voting to prevent scrutiny of pension perks worth £8 million every year.

The European Parliament's bureau, the body that oversees the assembly's administration, has voted to prevent publication of a list naming the 475 MEPs who benefit from a pension scheme worth more than £1,400 a month to Euro-MPs with the taxpayer matching every euro personally contributed with two from the public purse.

Payments are controversial because, for "administrative reasons,” the MEP's personal contributions are taken automatically from office expenses.

No one checks whether the politician actually pays anything into the fund from his own salary. Many in Brussels believe that a "large proportion" of Euro-MPs are using their office payments to get a free second pension on top of national schemes.

The MEPs have sought to justify suppressing the list on the basis that publication would be "an intrusion into family or personal life".

But sources have told The Daily Telegraph that Nikiforos Diamandouros, the European Ombudsman, will make a finding of maladministration against Euro-MPs unless the names of beneficiaries are published.

"The pension is publicly funded and only available as a result of holding public office as an MEP," said the source.

"The Parliament's legal services say the list should be public and the European Data Protection Supervisor has no objection."