European Parliament Lawmakers Won’t Reveal Their Expenses

While considering laws pushing transparency in financial dealings, Members of the European Parliament have killed reforms which would reveal how they spend money for expenses, now kept under wraps.

The Bureau of the European Parliament voted by a narrow majority to reject proposals calling for MEPs to keep receipts, employ a professional paying agent to carry out checks on their General Expenditure Allowance (GEA) and return unused funds, the British newspaper The Express said.

It was put forth by the vice-presidents of the Greens, Liberals, Left and Italian Five Stars with two Social-Democrats on their side and came a year after Parliament President Antonio Tajani said he’d bring greater transparency over spending by the body’s 751 lawmakers, who meet in Brussels and in Strasbourg, France.

They get a monthly GEA expense allowance of 4,527 euros ($5,284) that is supposed to go for expenses such as office rent, stationery and staff and is a tax-free supplement apart from their monthly salary of 8,020 euros ($9,631).

MEPs receive daily allowances of 304 euros ($355) just by walking in the door each day, supposedly for rent too and household expenses, although members elected in Brussels also receive it, not just those from other countries.

An MEP can sign in 10 p.m. one night and 7 a.m. the next morning and receive two days’ daily allowance without having taken part in any meeting or other parliamentary activity.

The total cost of the monthly allowance is more than 39.6 million euros ($46.23 million) annually and goes straight to MEPs personal bank accounts with no requirement they account where it went, if they pocketed it, or that unused funds must be returned.

The European Parliament‘s rapporteur for transparency, accountability and integrity in EU institutions, Sven Giegold, said: “Voting down transparency of MEP’s expenses is a shot in the foot of the European democracy.

“The apparent lack of transparency of the GEA threatens to weaken the European Parliament‘s fight against misspending of EU funds and corruption,” he added, the paper said. Transparency International said the decision was “absolutely scandalous.”