By Martin Banks - 20th April 2009
In the current economic situation the taxpayer should not be asked to cover any shortfall of the pension fund
Glenis Willmott
MEP Glenis Willmott will this week attempt to block any attempt to plug a massive deficit of the MEPs' parliamentary pension fund with taxpayers' cash.
Willmott, leader of the UK socialist group in parliament, says that "under no circumstances" should the EU budget be used to cover the estimated €120m shortfall.
Her comments come in the wake of revelations that the deficit to parliament's voluntary pension fund rocketed from €30m to €120m in the year to December 2008.
At a meeting on 1 April, parliament's bureau, which oversees the fund, decided that the assembly would assume its "legal responsibilities to guarantee the rights" of the scheme's members.
The issue is likely to be raised on Tuesday in Strasbourg when MEPs debate discharge of the 2007 EU budget. Deputes will vote on the item on Wednesday.
The parliamentary report deputies will be asked to vote on includes a clause saying that "under no circumstances will parliament provide extra money from the budget to cover the fund's deficit, as it did in the past.
"If it has to guarantee pension rights, parliament should have full control over the fund and its investment policies," says the report.
It says that at 31 December 2007, the fund's assets were €214m.
Willmott told this website she will call for a roll call vote in order to establish who votes for the report.
She said, "I firmly believe that in the current economic situation the taxpayer should not be asked to cover any shortfall of the pension fund."
A German news site, WAZ Der Westen, last week reported that European taxpayer's money would be used to ensure that MEPs "gold-plated" pensions retain their full value.
Declan Ganley, leader of Libertas, the anti-Lisbon treaty party, said that, if true, this was "nothing short of outrageous."
He said MEPs "should accept the same pensions, and the same risks, as the voters they represent."
According to the parliamentary budget discharge report, the scheme's membership is about 1113, including 478 current MEPs, or 61 per cent of the total number of MEPs, 493 pensioners, of whom 56 were the dependents of deceased members.
The fund was set up in 1989 and comes on top of pensions MEPs receive from their national governments.
MEPs pay €1194 a month into the supplementary scheme and parliament pays in €2388.
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