Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-06-02-Speech-1-079"
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"en.20030602.6.1-079"2
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"Mr President, the starting point of this debate is incredibly simple. It is that the terms and conditions of Members of this House are not satisfactory, either from a Member's or from the public's point of view. Not only should MEPs receive a fair day's wage for a fair day's work, we should be taxed on the same basis as those who send us here. As a number of speakers have already said, we are not civil servants – we represent the citizens of the four corners of the European Union, here at its centre. The arrangements put in place should be appropriately drawn up and transparent, and the expenses regime which is back-to-back with them should not be disguised remuneration, and in particular travel should be reimbursed on a cost basis.
Although politically, expenses and remuneration are two sides of the same coin, their legal bases are distinct. We must not be pompous, hypocritical or self-serving about this. For obvious overriding political reasons the Council and Parliament must reach a political agreement about the two together. If either steps back from this it is breaking faith with the electorate and is culpable of wrecking the process.
As a Member, I am sick and tired of cheap jokes about the 'gravy train': let us recall that the basic salary we, the UK Members, receive is, so I am told, about the same as that of a decent-sized supermarket manager in a provincial town. Such jibes degrade Parliament as an institution and the European Union as a political process. Quite simply, I say, let us stop the talk and sort it out, because if we do not, we demean ourselves and degrade the process of which we are part.
As far as the contents of the Rothley report are concerned, we British Conservatives have deep reservations about some of them. The only way to break this impasse is to vote for the report as a whole, to take the process a step forward. We shall continue to work for a final outcome which will meet with our stated policy requirements. The immediate priority is to stop talking incessantly about the Statute and take some steps to do something about creating it."@en1
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