Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies has spoken out at the levels of fraud uncovered in the European Parliament in a report he has seen.
The document, which is yet has not been placed in the public domain, reports that an estimated £100 million has been paid out, be cannot be properly accounted for. This £100 million relates to allowances and staff costs which have, in at least one case, been paid out to an MEP who did not even employ any staff.
Chris Davies said of this
"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."
Quite right too Chris. The EU has been seen for too long as having too much corruption, too many people taking backhanders and too interested in the bureaucracy of Brussels than in the wider interests of Europe. If people are to have faith in the EU they need to know that it can be trusted to look after the money they take from us. We need to know that the EU takes the issue of embezzlement and fraud seriously, and that this will not be brushed under the carpet.
This is the EU's opportunity to show that it does have the guts to take this issue on. If it is simply ignored, if MEPs are allowed to get away with it, then even more people will have every right to ask again why we are signing up to EU reform treaty whilst the public get no right to vote on it.
4 comments:
The European Parliament is
un-democratic. No one voted for it and neither can we vote it out.
This matter will drift away like others and so the story goes on.
People are beginning to see the MPs and MEPs for what they really are.
What they forget is that they are elected by the people to act on our behalf. Yet, they do as they want.
Nothing changes.....
Conway was a small fish - it's plainly obvious to anyone with even a basic appreciation of how politicians' expenses work that many more people are abusing their privileges a lot more than he did.
It is important that the report is put in the public domain and that malpractice is rooted out.
Conway's wrongdoings were systematic and not just a "small fish" action. His abuses were deliberate, pre-meditated and his lame apology, instantly followed up with a statement that he still feels he did nothing wrong shows his true colours.
What this story highights though is that what Conway is doing is being done by a number of MEP's.
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