MEPs should hang heads in shame over 'jollies'
by Marta Andreasen
The European Parliament's central office is notorious for being opaque when it comes to divulging costs for fear of bringing their Institution into disrepute. Whatever possessed them to become so forthcoming when asked what were the most expensive delegation trips for 2010, we will never know. Delegations, for those of you that do not know, are groups of MEPs that travel to various points around the globe under the auspices of building better relations with parliamentarians and other political organisations.
Outside EU
| Delegation | Total Cost € | No. of MEPs | Cost per MEP € | No. of Days | Cost per MEP and day € |
| ACP-EU JPA, Kinshasa, November 2010, DRC Eurolat PA meeting in Cuen ca, Equador, November 2010 Transatlantic Relations, EU-US IPM & TDL Meeting, Washington, Dec 2010 Interparliamentary delegation to China, November 2010 EU-Chile 13th JPC Meeting in Chile, November 2010 Enlarged Bureau visit to China, Shanghai, May 2010 EU-Mexico 11th JPC Meeting in Mexico, November 2010 TAR delegation to Otawa, November 2010 ACP delegation, Seychelles, July 2011 Eurolat delegation, Buenos Aires, March 2010 | 1,025,530 463,193 204,671 176,970 150,602 144,538 129,710 117,610 105,819 105,182 | 50 39 28 11 9 7 11 9 13 4 | 20,511 11,877 7,310 16,088 16,734 20,648 11,792 13,068 8,140 26,295 | 8 4 3 8 6 8 6 9 5 5 | 2,564 2,969 2,437 2,011 2,789 2,581 1,965 1,452 1,628 5,259 |
In reality, and barring a small number of MEPs genuinely committed to a region or country's wellbeing, they are treated as a jolly by all and sundry. Some MEPs switch delegations in order to see as much of the world as possible. Fancy an all-expenses trip to the Seychelles? Join the African-Caribbean-Pacific Delegation. Rio or Buenos Aires more up your street? That would be Eurolat then. I am told that there is, of course, some work involved - but usually no more than a day or two. The rest is made up of trips around the country, visiting points of 'political' interest.
Inside EU
| Delegation | Total Cost € | No. of MEPs | Cost per MEP € | No. of Days | Cost per MEP and day € |
| ACP-EU JPA, Tenerife, January 2010 Eurolat, Sevilla, May 2010 EU-US IPM TLD, Madrid, June 2010 INTA Rome, May 2010 | 707,133 242,601 106,699 45,337 | 64 51 28 7 | 11,049 4,757 3,811 6,477 | 7 3 4 4 | 1,578 1,586 953 1,619 |
The real cost of these jollies have finally been revealed. The figures came to light in a written response from the European Parliament central secretariat to members of the Budgetary Control Committee, of which I am a member. All the other political parties and groups were privy to the same information as I was, but I am the only MEP to date to raise the costs in public. Why? Because the UKIP is the only party in the EP that refuses to go on delegation trips as point of principle. I nearly choked on my coffee when I saw that one trip of the EP's African-Caribbean-Pacific delegation to Kinshasa over eight days cost taxpayers more than €1m for 50 MEPs, or a massive €20,000 per MEP.
The same delegation took a trip to Tenerife, which cost €11,000 per MEP over seven days for 64 MEPs. To illustrate the extravagance of these trips, an eight-night stay in a junior suite in the Ritz Hotel London is a snip at an eye-watering €5,400. Even as the financial crisis was starting to bite hard in 2010 - MEPs were rewarding themselves with self-serving and largely pointless delegation visits to the Mexico, the Seychelles and the Democratic Republic of Congo. And even within the European Union, the costs of trips were astronomical. One can only imagine the opulence that greeted MEPs in Rome, where a seven-night trip broke down to each MEP spending €1,600 per day. Once again, it seems MEPs are happy to preach austerity to anyone but themselves. These figures are an appalling abuse of taxpayers' money. They should hang their heads in shame.
Marta Andreasen is a UK Independence Party MEP and former chief accountant at the European Commission
The European Parliament has given in to three years of pressure to release an internal audit of MEPs expenses
Sounds more like an episode of "Yes Minister" rather than a real-life report. But one question, if I may - was this the best time to present this report, which will only damage credibility of the EU further, when the battle is to save it?
Aritra - Kolkata, India
Why does this channel give a disproportionate amount of space to the extremists of UKIP? It is a right-wing party, which wants Europe to decline so that Britain may become one of the most powerful nations in the world again. These are not rational people.
pmcdonald - London
Firstly pmcdonald, this is a news and analysis website, it is not a "channel". Second, we publish articles by a broad range of European political parties and international organisations - in addition to our own impartial journalism. Please spend some time looking at the diversity of our content before you make such inaccurate assertions.
Dean Carroll - PublicServiceEurope.com editor
Surely, the British are not the only people who don't want to throw money down a plug hole. Especially, during tough economic conditions. How about putting MEPs up only in 4-star hotels instead of 5? And only sending 1 to each event? Can the EU be reformed? If not, its days are numbered.
Robin Tingey - Swindon, UK
Oh, UKIP's perspective is quite rational if you would like to see Britain apart from the EU and not so much so if you want them together. I think Mr Barroso was right when he said the extreme left and right are united against the Euro project, but for different reasons. Well he was right except for the "extreme" part.
Nathan Winters - Kansas, USA
