International

At the moment there’s a great deal to be done about the Dutch financial contribution to the European Union. A setback which amounts to more than €640 million, that’s no mean thing. Even if you could be sure that the money would immediately do some good, you’d still want an explanation. However, the waste of money as funds are pumped back and forth between Brussels and The Hague will go on, while this week in Strasbourg it turned out that MEPs will be able to carry on moneygrubbing undisturbed. Only for the abolition of the monthly back and forth travelling circus between Brussels and Strasbourg was there a majority, but when it came to the proposal relating to parliamentary expenses, most MEPs wouldn’t hear of it.

Photo: M.E. Koenig (CC BY-NC 2.0)

As I have been doing for years, this year I again presented numerous proposals aimed at economising on the EU budget for next year. Two of these proposals concerned reimbursement of Euro-MPs’ expenses. Firstly I proposed that all Members should have to account for what they do with the €4,300 per month which they receive as ‘reimbursement of general expenses. This should of course not be in any way controversial. After all you can’t tell the Inland Revenue service that you don’t fancy filling in your tax return. Unfortunately this failed on this occasion to win a majority, though there was one glimmer of light: that majority has never been so small. If we can manage to persuade another twenty or so, we’ll be there and it will become impossible to simply pocket this enormous monthly sum.

My second proposal attracted far less support. It concerned two other categories of expenses which all MEPs receive: the daily allowance (paid for every day that the EP is in session, provided that you have signed one or another register); and the distance allowance (which you receive if you are outside the country in which you live, the one you represent). Both reimbursements are designed to make up out-of-pocket expenses, such as bus tickets or your hotel. When you consider, however, that the daily allowance amounts to more than €300, then do you really need a ‘distance allowance’ in addition? Evidently most of my fellow MEPs continue to fear that these extra earnings will disappear if such an enquiry is conducted, and for that reason they voted against.

Most political parties wriggle and squirm in the runup to the European elections, trying to interest the voters in the European institutions. The EU is then incredibly important and it is for everyone. People do not, however, allow the wool to be pulled over their eyes: if they see that once elected, Euro-MPs hold on tenaciously to their moneygrubbing ways, they will know very well that the EU exists primarily for itself. The Dutch taxpayer has to pay out to Brussels, while the MEPs continue happily to sit on their treasure chests. That is a scandal.