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900 former MEPs are entitled to a very advantageous pension, for which they have contributed to a supplementary pension fund of the European Parliament. Very generous, the system is now almost bankrupt. European taxpayers could have to pay 310 million euros to balance it.
They would still be more than 900 to benefit from this complementary pension, very advantageous. MEPs were able to subscribe to it until 2009. Among them were many French people, such as Jack Lang, Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Jean-Marie Le Pen. Bruno Gollnisch, former FN MEP, is one of the beneficiaries. He receives just over 4,600 per month from this fund, in addition to his other pensions. He contributed for 25 years. “Parliament created this pension fund by very vigorously encouraging MEPs to join it”he said.
310 million euros deficit
At the time, the system was very interesting for elected officials. For one euro contributed, the European Parliament paid two. The deficit grew rapidly, and now stands at 310 million euros. Taxpayers will have to foot the bill. Bart Staes, beleaguered for 20 years on Parliament’s budget control committee and former Greens MEP, had warned of the risks as early as 2003.
Over the years, the reports have multiplied. The office that heads Parliament, however, did not take this into account. “The vast majority of the members of the office (…) were members of this fund”, says Bart Staes. The institution has just tackled the problem and taken three measures: raising the age for receiving the pension, halving the amount of levies paid, and ending automatic indexation to inflation.
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