Posted on 04/25/2006 10:52:57 PM PDT by Timeout
OUTRAGED MEPs last night demanded an end to the European Parliament’s monthly travelling circus to Strasbourg after it was disclosed that the French city has siphoned off up to €150 million (£105 million) of taxpayers’ money by secretly inflating the rent for the parliament’s buildings for more than a quarter of a century.
The European Union’s only elected institution, which is forced by treaty to meet in Strasbourg 12 times a year, froze further payments on the €10.5 million annual rent due to its host city. Strasbourg has caused further resentment by refusing to co-operate with an investigation into the scandal, the biggest to engulf the Parliament, which is likely to be referred to the police.
Strasbourg is alleged to have overcharged the rent on two buildings — the Winston Churchill and the Salvador de Madriaga — by between 10 per and 40 per cent since 1979. It is estimated that the European Parliament was overcharged by €2.7 million last year alone.
The inflated rent is also likely to have caused the European Parliament to overpay for its main building in Strasbourg, the Louise Weiss, which was acquired from the city in 2004 for €450 million. Its price tag was based on local rents.
The financial scandal is highly embarrassing for an institution that prides itself as the ultimate watchdog against EU financial wrong-doing.
The Parliament yesterday refused to sign off its own annual budget and began an investigation into how much it had overpaid and whether there was fraud involved. There is an intense row brewing within the Parliament, with MEPs accusing its officials of knowing about the overpayments but doing nothing.
Jan Mulder, the Dutch MEP responsible for budgets, said: “I am very surprised. We knew nothing about it. We have been taken for a ride.”
The buildings are owned by SCI Erasme, a Dutch pension fund, that lets them to the city, which in turn sublets them to the Parliament. The Parliament pays the rent to the city authorities, who appear to have been raking off a substantial share before remitting the balance to the Dutch company.
The scandal has provoked a bitter showdown between the French city and the Parliament.
Strasbourg has outraged MEPs by refusing to co-operate with the investigation by denying access to its internal budget documents, which would show how much money it made from the Parliament and where it went.
Hans-Peter Martin, an Austrian MEP on the committee investigating the scandal, said: “It means a complete lack of trust between the Parliament and the city of Strasbourg. The loss to the taxpayer is at least €30 million and possibly as much as €150 million. It’s all wheeler-dealing. Everyone is on the gravy train.”
MEPs, who are normally based in Brussels, have repeatedly tried to bring to an end the costly Strasbourg circus, when 732 MEPs, 3,000 staff and a fleet of lorries filled with crates descend on the French city for four days once a month.
**European Parliament has three bases: in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg, where its administration is based
**The Strasbourg base was confirmed by Tony Blair and his EU counterparts in the 1999 Amsterdam Treaty
** The Parliament has to hold 12 plenary sessions a year in Strasbourg
**The annual cost of the monthly relocation is £200 million — about 13 per cent of its budget
**Strasbourg has a 750- seat debating chamber, 1,133 offices, meeting rooms, restaurants, bars and a vast press room. The facilities are used for only about 40 days a year
LOL! No wonder they can't get anything done!
I laughed out loud at the thought of all those trucks rumbling back and forth...for a four day meeting! And then to find out they've been getting rooked by the host city....one couldn't make this stuff up!
...that the *French* city has siphoned off up to €150 million (£105 million) of taxpayers’ money by secretly inflating the rent for the parliament’s buildings for more than a quarter of a century.
Wow. You really *can't* make this sh%t up. At least here we call it "pork", instead of "siphoning". Jeez... ahhh, ze French.
And this was priceless:
The financial scandal is highly embarrassing for an institution that prides itself as the ultimate watchdog against EU financial wrong-doing.LOL!
The annual cost of the monthly relocation is £200 million — about 13 per cent of its budget.13% of the budget! Ha! Probably keeps the "lorry drivers" happy, though!
i wouldn't laugh, theres too much pork in our government spending as well. Its so sad. Governments need to be as small as possible, otherwise they'll just abuse the billion of money that goes thru their hands every year as entitlement mentality creeps in
So many sarcastic replies - so little bandwidth.
Suffice it to say that it couldn't happen to a more anal group of socialists.
But what senator could be that self serving?
But what senator could be that self serving?
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