European Parliament - Tricks of the Law

When a Maltese journalist asked the European Parliament for access to information about MEPs’ expenses, the Parliament refused, hiding behind data protection rules. It also said there was no need to give out the information because there was a system of supervision in place and the public should trust in that.

The European Ombudsman intervened. He checked with the European Data Protection Adviser who threw out the data protection arguments and the Ombudsman said that the information about expenses should be made public for the sake of transparency. He argued that voters would not be able to exercise their democratic choice effectively if they were denied information about MEP attitudes to public funds.

The European Parliament still refused to publish the information because this was not a requirement in some member states of the EU. Since the European Parliament is subject to European law, not the lowest common denominator in the member states, the Ombudsman threw out this argument too. He also complained about the damage the European Parliament was causing to his credibility. On 14 July 2008, he made a formal finding that the European Parliament was guilty of maladministration and that the way the European Parliament interpreted the law weakened the principle of transparency. Source http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/decision/en/053643.htm#hl3

Libertas will uphold all decisions made by the Ombudsman on transparenty and campaign within the Parliament to implement his recommendations. We will campaign against obstructionism and legal trickery in order to hide the truth behind MEPs' expenses.