Adoption of the statute of European Members

The committee adopted a draft resolution on the MEPs' Statute as part of a report by Willi ROTHLEY (PES, D). The committee suggested a few technical amendments to tighten up the wording of the Statute, which governs MEPs' pay and conditions, and to iron out inconsistencies. The vote on this own-initiative draft resolution (which formally completes the procedure of adopting the draft decision and hence the draft Statute) was held over from the committee's vote on 25 March 2003 on the individual provisions of the Statute to await developments on various outstanding points. The key issue was a pending decision by Parliament·s Bureau on the refunding of MEPs· travel expenses. The committee felt MEPs should be fully informed about the exact conditions before they voted in plenary on the draft Statute. The Bureau was expected to take its decision on 29 May 2005 but the committee adopted the draft resolution at its meeting of 21 May 2003 in order to allow Parliament to vote on the whole of the draft Statute at its June 2003 plenary session. The draft resolution repeated the call to Parliament·s Bureau to adopt new rules on the reimbursement of travel costs, defined as ·duly substantiated costs incurred in the performance of MEP·s duties·. �