General Expenditure Allowance
European Parliament demands full transparency over how MEPs spend public funds
Today the plenary of the European Parliament adopted a demand for full transparency of the General Expenditure Allowance - the 4,320 EUR that Members of the European Parliament receive each month to cover their office costs. Voting on the Discharge of the European Parliament, Benedek Jávor, the shadow rapporteur for the Greens/EFA Group said:
"It is a day of victory for transparency. With this vote the European Parliament plenary has corrected the Budgetary Control Committee's rejection of my very same proposal to adopt an amendment highlighting the need for full transparency of the GEA allowance. This vote sends a clear message to Bureau and the EP services to make the GEA transparent and accountable."
He added, "Had this call for transparency and accountability not been approved by the European Parliament plenary, we could not be credible to the voters, especially if we are setting up inquiry committees and pointing fingers when it comes to the Luxleaks, Dieselgate and the Panama papers scandals, but then we fail to clean up our own act!"
The Greens/EFA Group also welcomes the repeated call on the EP to further improve its commitment to Green public procurement in the everyday functioning of the European Parliament. We believe that is plenty of room for improvements still, particularly when it comes to the construction of new buildings and the maintenance of existing ones, the rationalisation of expenditure, in CO2 offsetting and even in the choice of caterers.
The Greens/EFA group will do everything to make sure that these recommendations are implemented properly by the European Parliament in the future.
