Political groups pledge spending clean-up

Date: 01/06/2000

By Gareth Harding

THE European Parliament's political groups have promised to open up their books to outside inspectors in response to stinging criticism from the Court of Auditors of the way they spend more than €35 million of taxpayers' money each year.

Earlier this year, the EU's financial watchdog lambasted political groups in the assembly for sloppy accounting and lax financial controls, which it said, led to "significant problems" in checking the legality of payments.

The auditors' report, which has still not been made public, also attacked the groups for channelling millions of euro of public money into the coffers of political parties in Europe.

In its draft response to the paper, the Parliament accepts many of the Court's criticisms. While arguing that the political groups must remain independent, it says that they should be subject to strict new rules from the beginning of next year.

These are likely to state that groups' spending should have a clear link with the activities and policies of the Union, and must not finance national political parties. They are also expected to recommend that political groups should have their accounts checked by an outside auditor every year.

Under the proposed new rules, a list of accountancy firms drawn up by the Parliament's services would be given the power to issue 'certificates of financial cleanliness' to the groups if their accounts are judged to be in order.

The Parliament disagrees with the Court over its recommendation that the assembly's administrative body should be in charge of handing out money to the political groups. One official said that it would be "ludicrous if we had to beg the secretary-general every time we wanted cash".

However, on the subject of financing European political parties, both the institutions see eye to eye.

In the short term, the Parliament will insist that all transfers of funds from the assembly's political groups to pan-European parties should be made public and subject to certain ceilings. It will also lay down strict rules for what Parliament facilities the political parties should be allowed to use, to prevent accusations of piggy-backing.

In the long-term, the assembly's largest political groups have asked the European Commission to draw up a statute for political parties defining exactly how they should operate in future. They are also pressing EU governments to put the issue on the agenda of the current treaty reform talks so that European political parties can be given a solid legal base.

One parliamentary official said that the aim of the changes was to make sure that by the end of its five-year term, the Parliament would be able to "wash its hands of the parties" by making sure they can stand on their own two feet.

The European Parliament's political groups have promised to open up their books to outside inspectors in response to stinging criticism from the Court of Auditors of the way they spend more than €35 million of taxpayers' money each year.