Euro-MP allowances - briefing
Allowances and expenses claims by parliamentarians have been in the news a lot recently.
To ensure Caroline maintains high standards of transparency, her Euro-MP office has produced a Question & Answer (Q&A) sheet which should answer the main questions that people may raise about allowances.
Headline points from the Q&A sheet:
1. Caroline claims legitimate allowances to help serve her constituents. They are not part of the Westminster MP expenses system where MPs were able to claim large sums for dubious household improvements and other perks.
2. Caroline's allowances are for the costs of running an office, travel & subsistence and paying staff salaries to ensure she can effectively serve a vast region with nine million constituents. In comparison the typical Westminster constituency only has around 90,000 constituents. The South East MEPs represent the same area as 83 Westminster parliamentary constituencies.
3. Caroline's reporting is amongst the most public and detailed available of all Euro-MPs. In the Southeast region of ten Euro-MPs, no other party has disclosed the same detail of information. Caroline came top, ahead of all the other Euro-MPs in the Southeast (Conservatives, Labour, LibDems and UKIP) in Open Europe's transparency rankings of Euro-MPs. The rankings of Southeast Euro-MPs are below.
4. Caroline and other Green Euro-MPs have led calls for a clearer and more detailed reporting system: for example Greens have urged other parties to back a move to force all MEPs to declare 50% of their general expenditure receipts but other European Parliamentary parties have opposed reform, including the groups in which Conservative and Labour Euro-MPs belonged.
You can access the Question & Answer sheet PDF [350kb] here.
If you still have questions or need clarification after reading the Q&A sheet please visit http://www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk/euro-parliament/#pay
or contact Caroline by email: carolinelucas@greenmeps.org.uk
SE MEPs' Transparency Ranking* by Party - ranking by Open Europe.
Caroline came top in the Southeast with 43 points.
Caroline Lucas 43 Green Party
Richard Ashworth 38 Conservative
Daniel Hannan 34 Conservative Party
James Elles 30 Conservative Party
Sharon Bowles 28 Liberal Democrat
Peter Skinner 26 Labour Party
Ashley Mote ** 24 UK Independence Party
Nigel Farage 23 UK Independence Party
Baroness Emma Nicholson of Winterbourne ** 23 Liberal Democrat
Nirj Deva 21 Conservative Party
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* Open Europe's ranking is based on a range of activities, including voting records, attendance, written declarations, and whether the MEPs themselves have taken part in wasteful activities, such as the controversial second pension fund.
MEPs have been awarded points based on a 'Premier League' model, where 3 points is the highest score, followed by 1 point and 0 points. On attendance, a scale from 1 to 6 was used. A total of 58 points is available for each MEP. In addition, MEPs who have been the subject of substantive press reports of wrongdoing have been shown a 'red card' in our ranking and had 10 points deducted from their score.
The ranking has two main categories: 'Transparency, openness and democracy' and 'Fighting waste and misuse of EU funds'.
** 2009 European Election replacements, (for which transparency rating data is not currently available for)
- Ashley Mote replaced by Marta Andreasen (UK Independence Party)
- Baroness Emma Nicholson of Winterbourne replaced by Catherine Bearder (Liberal Democrat)
If you still have questions or need clarification after reading the Q&A sheet please visit
http://www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk/euro-parliament/#pay or contact Caroline by email to carolinelucas@greenmeps.org.uk
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