Expenses and parliamentarians: it's been a year of scandal and outrage as the British public has realised how much Westminster MPs were claiming, and for what. But the cash going to their European counterparts has escaped serious scrutiny ... until now.
Riding Europe's Gravy Train focuses on the extremely generous expenses enjoyed by members of the European Parliament along with two other areas of EU spending, the huge amounts given to agriculture and to help economic problems.
Our 72 MEPs commute between their constituencies in the UK and the sessions of the parliament held in Brussels and Strasburg. That means they have to travel, spend nights away, run two offices and pay staff, at home and in Brussels.
MEPs are paid a subsistence allowance of 298 Euros a day (approximately £260) to cover their additional costs while working in Europe. At least half of that would go on a good quality hotel near the parliament, while still leaving plenty for eating out. Some MEPs prefer to rent or buy somewhere. One MEP, who's buying a flat, admitted the allowance was more than he needed to cover his costs. And when he sells he could make even more profit – money which won't go back to the taxpayer who funded the allowances.
But there's a bigger problem with the attendance allowance: MEPs who sign in at dawn on a Friday to claim the money for the day and then disappear for the weekend. There are no parliament sessions on a Friday and few official engagements, so very little reason for most MEPs to be there.
We filmed secretly near the attendance office which opens at 7am. There were already MEPs queueing and grumbling that the office was late opening: one said he'd miss his plane, another said his car was waiting in the garage. We watched as they signed in, most of them with suitcases, and then left the building.
Among the MEPs we filmed were two British politicians, who both headed to their offices. When we approached them to ask if they felt they could justify claiming their daily allowance both of them said they had meetings during the day but admitted they were leaving later. One of them then contacted us to say his diary had changed and he was now staying in Brussels that night.
The attendance allowance is paid automatically, no receipts required. The same applies to the money given to MEPs to run their offices. They're paid about £3,500 a month, regardless of how much they actually spend. We found about 20 MEPs who under-spent their allowance by at least £10,000 last year. We asked if they'd returned the money and their parties all replied that they'd keep the cash until this parliament ends in 2014 and then repay it. So we asked how much they'd returned at the end of the 2009 session: they all said they'd only just starting keeping figures and so they couldn't tell us.
We also reveal the British MEPs who pay their partners to work for them, which is completely within the rules but it's a practice that MEPs from most other countries disapprove of. 'A family feeding system', one Austrian MEP calls it. When the parliament voted to ban the employment of close family members, it's been claimed it was British MEPs who lobbied hard to win an extension for another four years.
Travel allowances have been tightened up after some MEPs were found claiming expensive tickets and buying cheap ones. Now they have to produce receipts. But we've discovered some have found a new way of benefitting – demanding the most expensive ticket possible which maximises the air miles they're given, which they can then use for holidays and other personal travel. They are also paid additional travel allowances, on top of the ticket costs, which can give them up an extra £7,000 a year, on top of their £80,000+ salaries.
Dispatches also reveals how the huge amounts paid in grants for agriculture and economic development don't always go to the people who need them most and we confront the convicted criminal refusing to pay back hundreds of thousands of pounds of EU money.
