BRITAIN’S newly elected MEPs could boost their earnings to £300,000 a year, according to a leaflet aimed at helping them to maximise their expenses.

An MEP’s basic salary is £56,000 a year — the same as a Westminster MP — but by making full use of travel, attendance, staff and office allowances, it can be increased more than fivefold. The pamphlet advises MEPs that they can have some allowances paid directly into their bank accounts without having to provide any receipts to show how the money was spent. It also advises putting a member of the family on the payroll, so you can keep all the staff allowances.

The leaflet, How to Maximise Your Expenses: Advice to New Members of the European Parliament, was produced by the Social Affairs Unit, the Eurosceptic think-tank. It is based on interviews with existing MEPs and their staff, and written as a satirical letter from an old-timer in the Parliament making sure that newcomers uphold its traditions.

The 732 MEPs cost an average of £1 million a year to maintain, about 2½ times as much as an MP at Westminster, and 13 times as much as a member of the House of Lords.

One of the most popular allowances is the travel allowance, which is supposed to pay for weekly trips from home to Brussels or Strasbourg, the two seats of the European Parliament. “The great merit of the travel allowance is that it prevents the submission of claims on the basis of actual air fares. You simply hand in your boarding pass and receive a sum calculated on the basis of kilometrage. In nearly all instances this amounts to a sum in excess of business class,” says the leaflet, adding that it can earn an MEP up to £600 a week, or about £30,000 a year. Some reform-minded MEPs have tried to claim only the actual amount they spend on travel, but the parliamentary authorities have rejected that saying there is no mechanism in place to make such payments.

MEPs can also claim a €262 (£180) daily attendance allowance, nicknamed the “siso” fee, short for “sign in and sod off”. The pamphlet advises: “In order to claim this it is merely necessary to sign in before 10am on any or all of the 155 days on which the European Parliament sits; there is no need to speak in a debate or even to stay.”

MEPs can also claim a staff allowance of £8,500 a month, but they can use it to pay whoever they want. “The important thing to remember about the staff allowance is that it is entirely up to you how you spend it. No receipts are necessary and there is no audit. Around 70 per cent of MEPs demonstrate their commitment to the family by employing a wife, husband or other member of their family as a secretary or assistant,” the leaflet says.

MEPs get two free offices supplied by the Parliament — including bathrooms and beds — but they also get general office expenses of £2,540 for supplies and equipment. “This system is not subject to audit and you may, if you wish, have this paid directly into your account,” the leaflet says.

MEPs can claim a £35-a-week taxi allowance for when the chauffeur limousine service closes at 10pm. However, the drawback of this allowance is you do actually have to spend the money before you can claim it.

Many MEPs openly claim as much as they are legally allowed to on expenses. The UK Independence Party has an official policy of claiming the maximum and then using the money to promote its cause.

The advice given, although written by a Eurosceptic think-tank, is similar to that collected by the BBC in drawing up tips for new MEPs from old ones.

Elmar Brok, a leading German MEP, told the BBC: “The very first thing you should do when you arrive in the European Parliament is sign the attendance register (this is necessary to receive the allowance for attending sessions). Don’t miss out on the lovely twelfth-floor restaurant in the Paul-Henri Spaak building (one of the Parliament buildings in Brussels).”

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