A European Parliament report that had unveiled a raft of financial abuses by MEPs will have to be published after a ruling handed down by the European Court of Justice.
The report, kept under wraps so far, was drawn up by the European Parliament’s internal audit office and detailed the way certain MEPs allocated their €19,000 a month parliamentary assistance allowance in 2006.
An Irish lawyer had asked for a copy but was denied access by the Parliament’s administration. The court’s decision means that this decision will have to be overturned.
The report examined a sample of 167 payments made from the €136 million given that year in parliamentary assistance allowances. This amounts to 10.3 per cent of the EP’s budget.
The abuses that were revealed include MEPs claiming up to €200,000 in annual staff allowances without keeping any proof of staffing, awarding themselves bonuses of up to 1.5 times their salary and diverting public money into front companies. Following the internal report, the MEPs were forced to repay the money.
All those elected to the Brussels chamber are given a substantial parliamentary assistance allow-ance which they use to hire staff. It has been alleged that this allowance was abused by many MEPs in the past by claiming allowances without the need for proof or paying themselves through inflated allowances purportedly paid to their assistants. Some MEPs used to employ members of their families as their assistants.
The system was totally revamped at the beginning of the current legislature, which started in 2009, with the introduction of several more checks and balances. Payments to assistants are now strictly tied to defined contracts and paid directly by the EP and not through funds given to MEPs. This reform was introduced together with a new statute for MEPs which set a common salary of €8,000 a month for every member.
The ECJ’s decision coincides with a call made by transparency NGOs last week to force MEPs to declare their second jobs and refrain from any possible conflict of interest.
This call followed the “cash-for-amendments” incidents where MEPs were caught asking for money in exchange of the introduction of amendments into EU legislation.
According to transparency NGOs, the EP should have a code of conduct for MEPs particularly covering their involvement in jobs other than that of an MEP.
The EP’s President Jeszy Buzek has already set up a committee which is drawing up a new code of conduct.