Members of the European Parliament have been benefiting from a multimillion-dollar scam, which has left taxpayers funding their pensions and paying for travel expenses they did not incur.
The so-called 'champagne lifestyle' of the 626 Euro-MPs, who shuttle between Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg, is widely regarded as a scandal which member governments have failed to stop.
Euro-MPs receive the same basic salary as MPs in their national governments and receive travel expenses equivalent to business-class air fares plus 30 per cent, irrespective of how they chose to travel.
A recent study by the European Union Court of Auditors found their expenses and benefits invited fraud and needed a profound overhaul.
Officials said its findings showed the Euro-MPs could, in many cases, double their annual income by submitting false expenses.
'Most of the allowances are of the lump-sum variety and take the form of annual entitlements with fixed ceilings that are not linked closely enough to actual situations or costs,' the study found.
