30.12.2014   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 466/1

(1)

Article 20 of the Statute states, in paragraph 1, that ‘Members shall be entitled to reimbursement of expenses incurred in the exercise of their mandate’ and, in paragraph 4, that ‘Parliament shall lay down the conditions for the exercise of this right’. Those conditions are set out, inter alia, in Articles 22, 24 and 66 of the Implementing Measures for the Statute for Members of the European Parliament (2) (‘the Implementing Measures’).

(2)

Similarly, Article 4 of the Implementing Measures obliges Members to submit the original supporting documents when requesting reimbursement of medical expenses. The effect of this is that Members are required, at frequent intervals, to fill out by hand long and complex forms and to append to them the originals of invoices and other supporting documents, in order to obtain reimbursement for the expenses they incur.

(3)

In order to make the procedure less bureaucratic, Members should be offered the possibility of submitting reimbursement or defrayal requests electronically. It will be the responsibility of Members to keep the original supporting documents on file for a reasonable period of time, i.e. until 31 December of the calendar year following that in which the application for reimbursement or defrayal was submitted. The relevant Parliament departments should implement a system of spot checks based on standard audit practice to ensure that scanned copies of supporting documents match the originals thereof.

(4)

Therefore, the Implementing Measures should be amended so as to: permit Members to submit applications for reimbursement or defrayal of expenses in electronic form; permit Members to submit scanned copies of original supporting documents, accompanied by a declaration on their honour that these are true copies; and lay down the period of time for which Members are required to keep original supporting documents, and during which Parliament’s administration can check scanned copies of supporting documents against the originals thereof.

(5)

Moreover, in accordance with Article 69(1) of the Implementing Measures, the amounts of the reimbursable travel expenses, daily subsistence allowance and general expenditure allowance may be index-linked annually by the Bureau, up to a maximum increase equal to the annual inflation rate in the European Union in October of the previous year, as published by Eurostat.

(6)

The inflation rate for the period from 1 November 2013 to 31 October 2014, as notified by Eurostat on 14 November 2014, stands at 0,5 %. The new amounts resulting from the adjustment needed in order to take that inflation rate into account should apply from 1 January 2015 and the Implementing Measures should be amended accordingly,

1.

Article 4 is replaced by the following:

‘Article 4

Procedure

Applications for reimbursement shall be submitted to the relevant Parliament department or directly to the Settlements Office of the Commission, using standard forms accompanied by supporting documents.’

2.

In Article 20(1), point (a) is replaced by the following:

3.

Article 22 is amended as follows:

4.

In Article 24, paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:

5.

In Article 26, paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:

6.

Article 66 is replaced by the following:

‘Article 66

Alternative supporting documents

In the event of loss of the requisite supporting documents, a Member must submit a declaration of loss accompanied by alternative supporting documents consistent with the requirements laid down in these Implementing Measures.’

7.

The following article is inserted:

‘Article 72a

Electronically scanned supporting documents

1.   Where these Implementing Measures refer to the submission of applications for reimbursement or defrayal, such applications may be submitted in electronic form together with a digital signature.

2.   Where these Implementing Measures require the submission of supporting documents, such documents may be submitted in the form of scanned copies, provided that the Member declares on his or her honour that the documents submitted match the originals thereof.

3.   In order that checks may be carried out to match scanned copies of supporting documents with the originals thereof, Members shall keep the originals until 31 December of the calendar year following that in which the application for reimbursement or defrayal was submitted.

The relevant Parliament departments shall implement a system of spot checks to ensure that scanned copies of supporting documents match the originals thereof.’