British MEPs to bag lucrative post-Brexit payout
The departing parliamentarians are entitled to
‘transitional’ payments totaling tens of thousands of euros.
Brexit champions Nigel Farage and Daniel Hannan, who both
began their mandates in 1999, could be entitled to over €172,000 in
transitional payments
British MEPs will be entitled to medical expenses and other
benefits, alongside the transitional payments
By MAÏA DE LA BAUME 1/9/19, 8:25 PM CET Updated 1/13/19,
10:58 AM CET
British MEPs departing the European Parliament because of
Brexit will receive a payout worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of euros.
According to a 22-page document obtained by POLITICO titled
“British Members end of mandate," the British legislators who are due to
leave on March 29 can claim a "transitional allowance" of €8,611.31
per month before tax for up to two years, depending on their length of service.
Taken together, the payments amount to a bill for European
taxpayers of a few million euros.
The document, which covers "members' entitlements,
staff and logistics in the framework of Brexit," was distributed to
British MEPs before Christmas. It contains practical information for the
departing MEPs who, it states, must vacate their offices in the Parliament's
two homes in Strasbourg and Brussels before Brexit day on March 29. They can
ship a maximum of 15 removal boxes back home.
The MEPs must also remember to leave behind their voting
card, EU pass, Belgian special ID card, iPad, laptop and office keys — but they
are allowed to keep their badge as a memento.
After Brexit day, the ex-legislators will still have access
to their parliamentary email account and can request copies of electronic files
for up to three months, but if they take up a professional lobbying position
they "should inform the Parliament," according to the document.
“The Parliament is not too generous. It is the system as a
whole that is unjust" — MEP
The financial package offered to Brexiting MEPs is no
different from that offered to any other EU legislator leaving the assembly,
for example if they are voted out. MEPs are entitled to a month of transitional
allowance (the same amount as their salary) for every year they have been in
the Parliament. So Brexit champions Nigel Farage and Daniel Hannan, who both
began their mandates in 1999, will be entitled to over €172,000 in transitional
payments if they do not take on another public or parliamentary appointment in
the 20 months after Brexit day.
Farage is already among the top 10 best-paid MEPs because of
declared outside earnings from broadcast contracts of between €590,048 and
€790,000 since the beginning of this Parliament.
Alongside these transitional payments, the British MEPs will
be entitled to medical expenses and other benefits. According to the document,
they can receive half of the "General Expenditure Allowance" for
three months after Brexit day.
The GEA is a controversial €4,416 per month payment that
MEPs are given to cover office and other expenses, but they are not required to
provide any evidence of how the money is spent — leading to accusations that
some legislators use it as a personal slush fund.
British MEPs will be entitled to medical expenses and other
benefits, alongside the transitional payments | European Parliament
The document also makes clear that the departing British
MEPs will have his or her "last trip back home" paid for, and be
entitled to "6 return journeys by air, rail or boat" in "the
member state of election" up to March 29.
“The Parliament is not too generous,” said an MEP who wanted
to remain anonymous. “It is the system as a whole that is unjust. These people
have been elected. It is the result of democracy.”
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