The Wardman Wire

This is an audio excerpt from an interview with Chris Davies (you need a blog, Chris), a Liberal Democrat MEP in the North-West. “Shocking” is something of an understatement.

Mr Davies suggests that to clean out this problem will require MEPs to be locked up, so fundamental is the abuse. From the Beeb:

The call for a probe came from Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies who said there had been massive fraud and embezzlement.

In one case an unnamed MEP reportedly took money but employed no-one, and another had just one member of staff.

Mr Davies is one of a group of MEPs on the European Parliament’s Budget Control Committee who were allowed to look at the report under surveillance and without taking notes or copies.

“This report is dynamite - and makes the Derek Conway affair at Westminster look like small change,” said Mr Davies.

..

“Let’s be quite honest. I think the allegations within this report from our own auditors should lead to the imprisonment of a number of MEPs. I think it’s embezzlement and fraud on a massive, massive scale.”

I am not very surprised, remembering the reports from a couple of years ago about MEPs “signing in” for others not present so that they could all claim expenses.

One way of dealing with this would be recognise officially that 150m Euros is an overhead which goes to expenses, employees, travel and fraud.

Another would be to - as he says - lock ‘em up. Let’s see what happens. I hope there are more good ‘uns than bad ‘uns.

Score one for the Lib Dem.

Leak the document, someone. NOW.

[Update 21/2/2008:20:00 : Jon Worth makes some interesting comments from a viewpoint less sceptical of the European Parliament than mine:

I reckon it’s dead certain that there’s some fraud in how MEPs spend their expenses - after all Derek Conway is doing it in Westminster, so I reckon there’s a high chance of it in Brussels and Strasbourg. On the other hand a quick search has found no other MEPs being as inflammatory in their language as Chris Davies - Gary Titley, leader of the UK Labour MEPs, welcomes the OLAF investigation. Plus Davies himself has form in talking in an over-the-top manner, having had to resign as leader of the UK Lib Dems in the EP in 2006 over comments that someone he was corresponding with saying he hoped she enjoyed “wallowing in her own filth”.

The Budgetary Control Committee, the EP body looking into this issue, has decent form in stamping out fraud - they were part responsible for bringing down the Santer Commission. The Chair of the Committee is fearsome Austrian Socialist MEP Herbert Bösch - you don’t really want to mess with him. Also in the Committee are prominent whistle blower Paul van Buitenen and Alexander Stubb, one of the Parliament’s very best MEPs.

]

Tags: mep, chris davies, liberal democrats, european parliament