International

Details of all journeys undertaken by MEPs and paid for by third parties must be made public, the European Parliament has decided. Explaining the concerns which led to the decision, SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong said, ‘Normally a member is not allowed to accept any gift worth more than €150. For gifts which take the form of reimbursing travel expenses, however, this limit doesn’t apply. A package holiday which claims to be a “study tour”, you can simply accept. That’s not good, because many lobbyists don’t hesitate to use this as a means of exercising influence. At the same time I would say that the new rule remains an important step forwards: Euro-MPs must now at least report this kind of gift, so everyone will be able to see who is getting invited on such trips.’'

The European Parliament today voted on the European Union institutions’ accountability for their expenditure, which of course includes spending by the European Parliament. SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong describes the failure to require accounts for the whole of European Parliament spending as ‘unacceptable’. Most importantly, the lack of accountability for MEPs’ own spending from so-called general expenses is an embarrassment. 'It’s inexplicable that the EU is imposing strict spending cuts on everyone else, while Euro-MPs are dead set against transparency regarding their own expenditure,’ says De Jong. ‘I’ve presented a proposal which would mean that MEPs would have our spending from our general expenses monitored annually. That this proposal was rejected by a slender majority is extremely disappointing.’