MEPs told to lift cash ‘veil of secrecy’

By Martin Banks

Date: 31/03/05

DETAILS of what expenses and allowances MEPs are entitled to claim should be posted on the European Parliament's website, according to a proposal to be debated at Strasbourg this month.

The liberal ALDE group accuses some MEPs of "hiding behind a veil of secrecy to work the expenses system".

Although entitlements to expenses and allowances are posted on the Parliament's intranet and so are visible to insiders, they are not easily available to the public.

ALDE group leader Graham Watson said: "Publishing details of our expenses and allowances on the Parliament website would be a small, but important, step in the right direction.

"It would improve transparency, make MEPs more accountable to the public and end the current climate of secrecy surrounding this issue."

Watson said that publishing the entitlements would then encourage the public to ask exactly how MEPs spent their allowances.

His party colleague, UK Liberal MEP Chris Davies, posts details of how he spends his various allowances on his personal website.

He says that in 2004, his office costs totalled €44,400, of which €11,900 went on rent and rates, €9,300 on stationery and computers and €5,400 on an office refurbishment. He used his assistance allowance to employ three full-time staff, three part-time staff and student researchers.

A spokesman for the EPP-ED group said: "We would prefer a more comprehensive solution to the whole issue of MEP salaries and allowances and hope that the German government will withdraw its veto on a statute for members in the near future."

A spokesman for the Party of European Socialists said it had "no problem" with the ALDE proposal.

A spokesman for the Greens group said: "We have not discussed this but we favour anything that would increase transparency."

The liberal ALDE group in the European Parliament called for more transparency concerning MEPs' salaries and that details of what expenses and allowances MEPs were entitled to claim should be posted on the European Parliament's website.