Quaestor ‘tried to influence Cox’ over MEP expenses

by Martin Banks

Date: 23/10/03

ONE of the European Parliament's quaestors faces accusations of "political blackmail" today after urging Pat Cox, the assembly's president, to persuade the head of the European Court of Auditors to ease up on the controversial issue of MEPs' expenses.

The claim follows the disclosure of an email sent to Cox by UK Conservative Richard Balfe, in which he expresses a concern, raised by another colleague, that the Swedish member of the Court "has a thing about members and their benefits".

Sweden's representative at the Court is Lars Tobisson, a 62-year-old former national parliamentarian, who was appointed in January 2002.

In the email, Balfe urges Cox to tell Juan Fabra Vallés, president of the Court, that auditors should not let "personal obsessions" get in the way of their work. He reminds Cox that Fabra Vallés is a former MEP and, as such, is entitled to a Parliamentary pension when he retires.

In full, the email reads:

Dear Pat,
After the bureau last night I had a drink with [Parliament] Vice-President Charlotte Cederschiold. She told me that the Swedish auditor on the Court of Auditors was the person who designed the public accountability rules for the Swedish parliamentarians expenses and "he has a thing" about members and their benefits.

When you next see Señor Fabra Vallés (a pensioner in the scheme from his time in the EP) you might like to remind him that Auditors should not let their personal obsessions get in the way of doing an impartial job. Yours ever, Richard.

One MEP said the email was "unacceptable", and urged Balfe to step down from the College of Quaestors, the Parliamentary body responsible for running the assembly's financial and administrative affairs.

Cox is furious about what he views as an inappropriate attempt to persuade him to influence Fabra Vallés, who was a member of the Parliament in 1994-2000. He said he wanted to be "totally disassociated" from the Balfe email, adding: "This is definitely not the way I conduct my business with the Court of Auditors. I chose to comprehensively ignore [Mr Balfe's email] and gave it the treatment it deserves. The Court has the right and responsibility to raise issues that are of concern to the European Parliament, and as long as I remain president I will ensure that this right is fully respected."

Dutch pro-reform Socialist MEP Michiel van Hulten said: "The email amounts to political blackmail. It is astonishing Balfe should try to effectively gag the Court of Auditors in this way. It is completely unacceptable for someone in Balfe's position to do something like this. By attempting to undermine the work of the Court, he has demonstrated a complete lack of respect for its role."

Van Hulten believes that one motivation for Balfe's email may have been an attempt, through Cox, to influence Fabra Vallés into toning down the Court's recent criticism of the Parliament's voluntary pension scheme in a recent draft report. As one of five quaestors, Balfe has special responsibility for management of the MEPs' pension fund, set up by the Parliament in the late 1980s. The report, due to be finalized next month, is expected to raise fresh concerns about the fund's legal framework.

Balfe, who is chairman of the MEPs' pension scheme, confirmed he had sent the email and said he stood by its contents: "I don't see what I have done wrong. I want to stress that I was not trying to interfere with the work of the Court. I was simply raising a point which I regard as perfectly reasonable, that is, that members of the Court should not let their personal opinions get in the way of doing an impartial job."

Balfe hit the headlines in March last year, when he defected from the UK Labour Party to join the Conservatives. An MEP since 1979, he blamed his decision to cross the floor on Labour's "growing arrogance and dishonesty".

Colleagues were not surprised to learn of Balfe's email to Cox. "He is probably the No.1 defender of the current MEPs' expenses regime and would be expected to be among those who are most resistant to change," said one member. "He knows, though, that if a body as influential as the Court of Auditors comes out against the current system that will put tremendous pressure on the powers that be to reform the system."

An aide to Fabra Vallés said the Spaniard was unaware of Balfe's email, but that it was never likely to have achieved its desired effect because Lars Tobisson's responsibility at the Court was social policy, not MEPs' expenses.

"I would also point out that decisions reached by the Court are based on objectivity and not "personal obsessions"," he added.

Richard Balfe, MEP, a EP quaestor is accused of urging the EP President, Pat Cox, of persuading the head of the European Court of Auditors to ease up on the controversial issue of MEPs' expenses.