It resumes on 14 July

Some arrive alone, trolleys in hand or carrying shoulder-bags with their portable computers. Others arrive in groups, having disembarked from the same passenger airline that took them to Brussels from Riga, Athens or Budapest. The welcoming service of the Euro-Parliament has prepared to receive the new MEPs from the 27 member states, elected between 4 and 7 June. They will not formally enter into office until 14 July, when the 2009-2014 legislature will officially begin business.Arrival at the EP in Brussels. “Dear MEP, it is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the European Parliament”, writes Klaus Welle, general secretary of the European Parliament (EP), in his introduction to the “Guide for the MEP”, a booklet prepared in view of the arrival of the 736 newly elected deputies. “The aim of this booklet – says Welle – is to provide information on the paperwork that MEPs will be asked to complete at the time they enter into office and to point out the legal, financial and administrative means that the Parliament places at their disposal to facilitate the performance of their duties”. The booklet, translated into the 23 official languages of the Community, describes the various procedures that need to be completed to be able to exercise the duties of MEP, and presents the new Statute of MEPs (covering such fields as independence and duration of mandate, incompatibilities, voting rights, “privileges”, compensation and financial regime, social rights, training courses).Booklet to guide MEPs. The booklet prepared by the European Parliament contains explanations regarding the various organs of the EP, the method of work in the chamber and in the committees, “working conditions” (offices, computer equipment, availability of documents, press conferences, visits and seminars, and so on). Specific information on more practical aspects of parliamentary life is also provided, such as simultaneous and written translations, availability of staff cars, cafés and restaurants, “family room” (for the families and children of MEPs), the Wayenberg kindergarten (for infants) and a non-denominational “place of meditation and contemplation”, available both at the EP in its headquarters in Strasbourg and in that in Brussels. “When they arrive in Brussels – explains Olivia Ratti, director of the EP for relations with the political groups, in a briefing to SIR – MEPs are met by a special hospitality service that furnishes them with a provisional badge, explanatory booklet, a CD rom with all the necessary information, a copy of the Statute and the texts of the main European Community Treaties”. “Usually – she adds – the politicians who arrive at the European Parliament already have a fairly clear idea of how the EP works and we help them to perform their mandate to the best”.The hemicycle takes shape. The Assembly will begin to function regularly once again with the launch of the plenary session in July, when the President for the first two and half years of the legislature will also be elected. According to the latest data processed by the parliamentary offices (10 June), the hemicycle, or debating chamber of the EP, will be filled by the European People’s Party group with 264 seats, the Socialist group with 161, the Liberal Democrats with 80 and the Greens with 53. These are the main groups, followed in turn by the 35 exponents of the Europe of Nations and the 32 of the united left. The eurosceptics of Independence and Democracy comprise 18 seats at the present time, but according to the new regulations to be able to form a political group a minimum of 25 MEPs from not less than seven countries are needed. So Ind/Dem will have to seek new members. There remain, in addition, 93 elected MEPs who for the time being are affiliated with no political group.Monthly salary and various expenses. In the meantime, the newly elected MEPs are trying to discover how the “parliamentary machine” works: some are guided by “veteran deputies”, who have been present in the EP for 10, 20 or even 30 years, like the current President Hans-Gert Poettering, who has been re-elected. According to the new Statute, MEPs are due a monthly gross salary of 7,665 euro in 2009; the costs of salaries will be paid out of the budget of the Parliament and subject to Community taxes, which are fairly low (the net monthly salary is 5,963 euro). One exception is however provided: MEPs who already sat in the previous Parliament may decide, if they choose, to remain subject to the regime of the previous remuneration, which had been established at the national level. As regards transfers from their own country to Brussels or Strasbourg, the new system provides for refunds for travel expenses really incurred; but MEPs will also receive 4,100 euro per year for other transfers outside their own country as part of their parliamentary business, as well as refunds for a maximum 24 return journeys within their own country. Each MEP is also eligible for a daily transfer allowance to a maximum of 298 euro. For general expenses (office rentals, telephones, postage, purchase of PCs and so on) MEPs will receive an allowance of 4,200 euro per month. To this are added expenses for secretarial assistance and parliamentary aides who, starting from this legislature, will have to be regularly hired. For these services each MEP will be provided with a further sum of 17,540 euro per month.