Parliament to post interests on the Web

Date: 08/02/01

MEPS have cleared the way for the list of their shareholdings, directorships and assets to be officially published on the Web for the first time.

At a meeting this week the Parliament's constitutional affairs committee agreed that the list of financial interests of all

Euro-MPs could be posted on a publicly accessible Internet site.

"At the moment we have a register of interests but people have to actually come to the parliament to see it," said British socialist MEP Richard Corbett, the Parliament's rapporteur on the issue. "If it's on the Internet then someone in North Finland or someone in the west of Ireland will be able to look at it straight away."

According to the constitutional affairs committee's decision the interests can be posted on the Internet without a complex change to the current rules of procedure as had previously been thought.

Instead Parliament President Nicole Fontaine will simply be asked to announce the change before a meeting of all MEPs.

Corbett says this decision will make it much more difficult for Euro MPs who are opposed to having their personal financial details electronically published to block the move.

To do so they will have to actively challenge Fontaine's announcement, whereas a rules change would have required approval by a majority of parliamentarians.

Some political parties within the Parliament already post the interests of their Euro MPs on the Internet but pressure has been growing on the assembly to make public all the details as part of a wider push for openness.

The issue was brought to a head last year after British television station Channel Four created a sensation in the Parliament by putting MEPs financial details on its website without the institution's permission. Many of those details turned out to be inaccurate or out of date.

MEPs have cleared the way for the list of their shareholdings, directorships and assets to be officially published on the Web for the first time.