Transparency of the General Expenditure Allowance

Political context

Firstly, when MEPs spend the General Expenditure Allowance (GEA), they are spending public funds paid for by European tax-payers, and therefore, the expenditure should be transparent and accountable.

Secondly, we focus on the GEA because it is one of the few types of spending that does not have to be accounted for in any way. Over the course of one year, this means that almost 40 million euros is spent by MEPs without accountability, oversight or control. This adds up to almost 200 million euros in one Parliamentary term.

Thirdly, The Greens want to proactively present a good example to the rest of the Parliament and to fulfill our duty towards the public.

The Greens/EFA Group Policy

To put in practice the Parliament's call last year for full transparency of the GEA, and to clearly lead by example in one of our strategic priority areas, the Greens/EFA group has adopted the following measures to ensure transparency and accountability of the GEA:

1. The GEA must be handled in a separate bank account
   This is currently not a requirement from the EP, though it is recommended. All Greens/EFA MEPs should have a separate bank account for their GEA.
    
2. Unspent GEA should be returned at the end of each mandate
   After the end of each mandate, Greens/EFA MEPs should return any unspent GEA funds to the European Parliament accounts. This is currently managed by the EP on a purely voluntary basis.
    
3. Spending of the GEA should be accountable and transparent:
    
   • Keeping all receipts: All receipts should be kept by Greens/EFA MEPs until the end of their mandate, unless there is a legal obligation to keep them for longer (or you can show an extract from your bank statement to corroborate the spending).
      
   • Publication of expenditure: An overview of the headline expenditure by category should be published or at least available upon request (e.g. communications costs, office rental, office supplies, etc.), at least once a year.

The policy above should not serve as a basis to downgrade current practices on the transparency of the GEA.