Parliament’s bureau has launched a review of the current assistants system.
At its meeting on Monday, the bureau, comprising the assembly's president and 14 vice presidents, unanimously agreed to adopt a recommendation from group leaders for a review.
It means parliament is now expected to press ahead with an assistant’s statute for all the institution’s estimated 1,500 assistants, plus the countless others who work in member states.
Once in force, there would be common rules regarding assistant’s pay, tax and social security contributions.
At present, these are largely drawn up by individual MEPs.
A parliament source said, "It is hoped the statute will be in force by the time of next year’s European elections."
A statute for MEPs, introducing a common salary for members, is due to be introduced at the same time.
The move comes in the wake of the recent furore over an internal auditor's report which is said to highlight widespread abuse of the system for paying assistants.
Some MEPs, including UK Liberal Chris Davies, are still pressing for the report to be made public.
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