EP" "
During its plenary session, held this week in Strasbourg (from 25 June 2003), the European Parliament approved the Rothley report on the Statute of members of the European Parliament. This represents the first official step towards the adoption of the first Statute for European MPs which should come into force at the same time as the European constitutional Treaty. The way is open to equal pay for all European MPs (around 8,500 euros a month subject to European not national taxation), and to measures regarding the reimbursement of expenses and travel and work allowances. The articles concerning the immunity of MPs from ‘politically-inspired persecution’ were also approved. As for safeguarding freedom of opinion and voting, article 4 of the proposal affirms that “members of parliament cannot at any time be prosecuted for actions undertaken, votes or opinions expressed in the exercise of their mandate, nor can they be called to give other account thereof in a non-judicial context. Upon the request of a member, Parliament must decide whether a given opinion was expressed in the exercise of his or her mandate”. Article 5 affirms that “any limitation on the personal freedom of a member is admitted only with the authorisation of Parliament, except in the case of a flagrant transgression”, and that “inquiries or penal proceedings against a member must be suspended when Parliament so requests”. The motivations of the proposal state that “safeguarding freedom of voting and expression represents a fundamental public interest. Paragraph 1 excludes all proceedings, penal or of any other kind, against members for opinions expressed in the exercise of their mandate”, and that “the immunity ratified by article 5 safeguards members against arbitrary repressive action (fumus persecutionis) and against obstacles put in place by the executive power. Another aim of immunity is to ensure the working of the European Parliament. Such considerations have led to the following solution. Inquiries or penal proceedings against a member can be started at any time and do not require immunity to be revoked. Current legislation does not favour either the European Parliament or its members; indeed, even minor misdemeanours such as an infraction of the highway code must be examined publicly. Any limitations on the personal freedom of a member must be approved by the European Parliament. In cases of fumus persecutionis, any inquiries or penal proceedings must be suspended upon request of the European Parliament”. The proposal now moves on to be examined by the Council. The text of the report and of the EP resolution can be downloaded from Internet at the address: www.europarl.eu.int
