Brussels, 27/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - As we had pointed out before, the European Parliament has published the list of MEPs' financial interests on the Internet. It remains, however, extremely difficult to gain access to this publication, which must contribute to improving the transparency of activities of elected persons outside their political mandate. The Parliament has hitherto been content with scanning over the statements drafted manually by MEPs in their national language. These declarations do not, of course, commit anyone except those who wrote them, but they confirm that, although a large number of MEPs respect the rules of the game, others still refuse transparency. A first survey carried out by EUROPE showed great disparity in declarations and the fact that some were missing.
Announced for 12 July, the publication on the Internet of the complete list of parliamentary assistants has not always been carried out although the Parliament did pledge, in April 2000, to do so in order to shed light on the way secretariat allowances are being used (allocated to MEPs for paying their assistants). The only list which is currently available only gives the names of accredited assistants and not those of assistants paid by allowances, and it can only be consulted on the spot in one of the EP's offices. Furthermore, some MEPs have not yet given to the EP administration the working contracts or the service contracts concluded with their assistants, although they were supposed to have done this before 16 July (date when these allowances are paid). This lack of transparency could entail further action from September on the part of the association of EP assistants, which recently presented its views in writing to Nicole Fontaine. According to one of the representatives of this association, if the Parliament applies the regulations to the letter, MEPs that have not submitted the work contracts of the assistants by July could be exposed to sanctions, after the summer break, in the form of a reduction of their secretariat allowances.