France's parliament has thrown out a proposal to oblige its 577 MPs to declare how they spend the £60,000 a year in tax-free expenses, keeping the current system where no receipts are required.

By Henry Samuel, Paris
12:18PM BST 25 Jul 2012



The National Assembly voted by four to one against a proposal by Charles de Courson to make MPs account for how they spend the 6,412 euros (£5,000) monthly allowance they currently receive no questions asked. In all, this amounts to 45 million euros per year of unaccountable expenses.

The generous sum that some MPs reportedly use to fund holidays and other perks, comes on top of their annual salary of 72,000 euros a year and a further 109,000 euros in annual staff expenses, again a sum handed out regardless of what they spend the money on.

Mr de Courson and his small group of allies have warned that parliament and the Senate, which is also resisting reform, are setting a bad example in a time of austerity.

He warned that politicians could no longer escape the demand for more accountability and that France was heading for an expenses scandal on a par with the one that rocked Westminster in 2009.

“Knowing that some colleagues use part of this allowance for expenses other than professional ones, there will one day be a big scandal, like in Great Britain,” he said.

He had proposed that MPs declare the part of their expenses allowance not spent on needs related to their jobs as personal income to tax authorities.

MPs, however, claimed that greater scrutiny would threaten parliamentary sovereignty and their independence.

The public sense that MPs have escaped belt-tightening was compounded by the fact that MPs also quashed an attempt to cut their salaries by about 30 per cent in line with President Hollande and his ministers.

A study last month by the French Institute for Research on Public Policy and Administration found that French MPs enjoy 77 per cent higher income than their British or German counterparts.

Last month investigative website Mediapart published the alleged expenses abuses of Pascal Terrasse, a Socialist member for the Ardèche departement, with charges to his account including family holidays abroad and bar bills. Mr Terrasse he had no memory of the spending details but have mixed up credit cards.

For the first time this week, the National Assembly called on MPs from the previous legislature to voluntarily reimburse any money not used for legitimate expenses.

Mediapart wrote to 23 new government ministers asking whether they intended to heed the call. Europe minister Bernard Cazeneuve said he had sent a 1,100-euro cheque while Michèle Delaunay, minister for the aged, promised to give 48,000 euros back. Most said they had spent all the money legitimately.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/9426127/France-parliament-votes-down-MP-expenses-overhaul.html