Germany and three other European Union states blocked attempts to clean up the European Parliament's "gravy train" image today, arguing that proposed reforms of the deputies' salaries were too generous.
Joined by France, Sweden and Austria, the EU's biggest paymaster vetoed key parts of the proposal, killing any chance of enacting legislation to reform the widely criticised pay and expenses system before EU-wide elections in June.
European Parliament President Pat Cox, who fought for a deal to standardise pay among MEPs in return for reining in expenses, called the decision deeply disappointing.
But German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said it was the wrong time to decide on what would be a substantial salary raise for German MEPs, when the government was proposing cuts in health care for its citizens.
"This gives the parliamentarians the opportunity to argue their position in the election campaign," he told reporters.
Reform efforts have been under way since 1998 in a bid to end widespread abuses of a system that allows MEPs to claim travel expenses without providing receipts. That enables deputies to claim the highest air fare for travel to and from Brussels, fly with budget airlines and pocket the differences.
For decades the relaxed expenses system - denounced by the system's critics as an open door to fraud - has served to narrow differences in salaries between MEPs who are paid the same as their national lawmakers.
In return for switching to real expenses, the reform plan called for MEPs to receive a gross monthly basic salary of more than €9,000 - calculated as half the salary of a judge in the European Court of Justice.
"We have delivered on our part of the bargain. We have backed the deal for reform," Mr Cox said in a statement.
"It will be deeply disappointing if, at this late stage, Member States cannot fulfil their part of the bargain."
MEPs' salaries vary enormously. Italians earn most at €11,000 a month, while Spaniards earn only around €2,600.