EU court to rule on release of MEP expenses details
The EU’s top court is to rule this week on whether information about the travel expenses, subsistence allowances and other expenses of MEPs should be made publicly available.
The Court of Justice of the European Union is to issue its judgement in a series of related cases taken by journalists seeking the release of such information.
To date, the European Parliament had refused requests for access to information on the 751 MEPs allowances. It is estimated that around €40m of the European Parliament’s annual budget goes towards MEPs’ expenses.
One of the journalists involved in the legal action seeking to annul the European Parliament’s refusal to release information about MEPs’ expenses is Gavin Sheridan, a co-founder of Right to Know, a campaign group advocating for greater transparency and accountability in public life and a former Irish Examiner journalist.
The initiative by a group of journalists from all 28 EU member states is known as ‘The MEPs Project’. They had sought four years of copies of spending records of MEPs, under freedom of information legislation.
Specifically, they asked for documents regarding the money MEPs receive on top of their basic salaries, which includes a general allowance, travel allowance, daily subsistence, and funds for staffing.
However, the European Parliament has cited personal data protection and an excessive workload as the basis for refusing the request.
“We firmly believe that records regarding MEPs’ spending of public funds intended exclusively for expenses they incur during the exercise of their official mandates are and must be deemed public information,” said Nataša Pirc Musar, a spokesperson for The MEPs Project.
“While MEPs should enjoy privacy in their private lives, they are employed by the people and for the people who are entitled to know how public resources are spent,” she added.
Ms Pirc Musar claims the European Parliament did not properly interpret personal data protection rules.
“The complete absence of monitoring of MEPs’ allowances, in the amount of almost €40m yearly, raises doubts that other spending by the 751 MEPs is monitored in a transparent, responsible and verifiable manner,” Ms Pirc Musar said.
The European Parliament has claimed that all necessary checks and balances are in place.
However, Ms Pirc Musar said: “Faced with confirmed cases of spending fraud by MEPs in the past years, spanning from staffing family members to cheating on daily subsistence allowances, and allegations of further frauds, we would like to see evidence of the European Parliament’s claims.”
The group points out that revelation by the Daily Telegraph in 2009 of the misuse of expenses by UK MPs highlighted the “massive abuse” which could occur in such schemes.
“We would be delighted to discover that MEPs have used their allowances in full compliance with the letter and spirit of the law but we will not accept, as journalists and Europeans, that we are denied the right to see the truth for ourselves,” Ms Pirc Musar said.
Details on expenses of some MEPs, if revealed, could prove embarrassing for some members of the European Parliament who are facing election in May.
