International

Each month every Euro-MP receives €4,299 for ‘general expenses’. From this you may, for example, buy office equipment or cover the travel and hotel costs incurred by guest speakers. There is no need, however, to account for any of this spending. On 25th January I will make another attempt in the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee to address this. Every cent of taxpayers’ money should be accounted for.

Since I became a Member of the European Parliament I have maintained a precise record of what we as a European political group spend. This is of course completely normal for the SP. The branches have their annual accounts, as do the parliamentary group and the party offices. What’s crazy is that this is not customary in the European Parliament. When in the first year I turned up at the admin offices of the EP with my receipts they looked at me as if I was bonkers: we don’t do anything with those, sir, they told me, because we aren’t allowed to monitor your books, unless there is evidence of large-scale fraud.

Every year, as it turns out, I have had at least €30.000 left from my general expenses, despite the fact that we organise meetings as necessary and invite speakers from abroad. Every member of the team has the office equipment he or she needs. So I have to ask myself how other MEPs deal with their reimbursement. Or do they simply line their own pockets?

In my view we could easily halve the amount, but at the very least expenditure should be transparent. On 25th January the head of the EP Secretariat will have to present his accounts. I’ll be giving him the third degree about this, because transparency is the least the public should be able to demand from the EP.