Adoption of the statute of European Members
2003/2004(INL)
The European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the Council to inform Parliament as soon as possible whether it is in a position to accept the proposed compromise and to approve the Statute for Members of the European Parliament should the decision, which Parliament adopted on 3 and 4 June 2003, be amended accordingly.
An overall compromise on the Statute for Members of the European Parliament could comprise the following points:
- the part of the Statute relating to secondary law should be examined separately and autonomously from that relating to primary law and they should be approved on the basis of the institutional provisions applying to each of them;
- as regards the part relating to primary law, Member States should be asked to revise those provisions of the Protocol on privileges and immunities of the European Communities of 8 April 1965 which concern Members of the European Parliament, using the Statute adopted on 3 and 4 June 2003 as a model;
- consequently, and subject to a favourable opinion from the Council, Articles 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 38(2), recitals 7, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34 and the words 'or only in respect of residual matters not covered by primary law' in recital 14 should be deleted;
- Members should be entitled to an old-age pension as from the age of 63;
- consequently, and subject to a favourable opinion from the Council, in Article 20(1), '60' should be replaced with '63';
- the provision concerning the Community tax to which the Members' allowance is to be made subject is without prejudice to the Member States' power to make this allowance subject to national tax law provisions, provided that any double taxation is avoided (compromise reached under the Belgian Presidency);
- consequently a new paragraph 1a should be inserted after paragraph 1 of Article 18 to read: 'Paragraph1 shall be without prejudice to the Member States' power to make this allowance subject to national tax law provisions, provided that any double taxation is avoided';
- the new rules governing the reimbursement of Members' expenses should enter into force at the same time as the Statute.�