In light of President Tajani’s announcement that an ad-hoc working group on the ‘General Expenditure Allowance’ has been set up at the European Parliament, GUE/NGL would like to stress its commitment to complete transparency at the heart of our European democracy, and that we believe a proper oversight of the money that is spent at our institution is long overdue.

We are delighted that our MEP and Vice President of the European Parliament Dimitrios Papadimoulis has been appointed as a member of this bureau working group. Since the credibility of the Parliament is at stake, he has already underlined that the working group has to work efficiently and in a timely way to ensure transparency at all levels.

However, the Parliament itself must also lead from the front, and we ask for concrete proposals from our institution. Transparency has to be strongly enhanced based on clearly defined rules, common for all and intelligible to MEPs and the public. Overall, we would need transparent rules that go beyond the GEA which define the responsible use of public money and equal labour standards for employees and service providers which must be applied by MEPs, political groups and the Parliament as a whole.

GUE/NGL considers this issue of particular importance and looks forward to further debates on this issue within our group. We welcome any requests from President Tajani for our input as part of the commitment to making our institution the most transparent in the EU.