Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-11-12-Speech-4-023"
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"en.20091112.5.4-023"2
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"Mr President, I want to congratulate the rapporteur on a very comprehensive report, and the Ombudsman and his staff. The service is improving year on year. A job well done.
However, when you read through a report and you agree with its contents, and then in the explanatory statement, you see a substantial paragraph which relates to yourself, you cannot ignore it.
What, of course, I am referring to is the paragraph where the Ombudsman criticises Parliament because, back in 2005, it rejected a request for information about the allowances paid to Maltese MEPs. Of course, the real issue was that, if that information was released, then information regarding all our allowances would have to be revealed.
As far as I am concerned, this is public money, and the public have a right to know how it is spent. We have published the amounts paid to farmers under the CAP, yet we are not publishing our own travel expenses and other allowances. As far as I am concerned, they are legitimate costs. They are incurred in doing our job on behalf of citizens. Again, my allowances for staff, for office, for travel, etc. in order to represent my constituents are entirely legitimate, and I do not need to apologise for them and I do not need to conceal them.
I am not suggesting that the privacy of my staff be compromised in any way: it does not need to be. But I am saying very clearly that, until we allow freedom of information on our allowances and expenses, citizens will see Parliament as a place which preaches transparency but does not enforce it in its own House.
I know individual Members can and do publish their expenses on their websites, but we as a Parliament have a collective responsibility to make the information available. Maybe it sounds like I am taking the high moral ground; I am not. I am merely saying it will happen, and it would be better that Parliament facilitate it rather than be pushed to do so."@en1
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