How EU tried to hide £500,000 bill for two months’ travel

Commissioners’ expenses revealed after three-year battle against obstruction of the Brussels machine

WHEN campaigners first asked the European Commission for details about the travel expense claims of the 28 commissioners in May 2014, they thought it would be a straightforward matter.

“I was going to use the request to show journalists from countries in Eastern Europe and the Balkans about the information we could get,” said Helen Darbishire, executive director of Access Info Europe.

“They told me they couldn’t give me the information because it was a question of privacy and cost. I was totally shocked.”

Three years and more than 190 requests for information later, the EU has finally relented and agreed to publish the information – two months’ worth, from 2016.

The costs are just the tip of the iceberg as the EU is still refusing to release expense claims for the whole year because of the “administrative burden”. It is keeping individual receipts for the claims secret.

It only agreed to release the information after Access Info Europe enlisted the support of 120 people to make individual requests.

Ms Darbishire said: “It is Kafkaesque. The pattern of resistance and obstruction has clear parallels with what happened with MPS’ expenses. What we have is a token gesture.”

However, even the limited information made public may go some way to explaining the European Union’s reticence in releasing the details.

Between January and February of 2016 the European commissioners spent nearly half a million pounds on travel expenses, including chartered jets, £500-a-night hotel rooms and unreceipted daily allowances.

“Why are they trying to hide this?” said Ms Darbishire. “I cannot see any rationale for not letting European taxpayers know how their money is being spent. The EU should be setting a goldstandard in terms of transparency.

“Whenever an EU commissioner goes somewhere they put out a huge amount of information about where they’ve gone, who they’re meeting and even what they are eating. The idea that the amount of taxpayers’ money spent on this is a private matter is nonsense.”

The expense claims have the potential to be politically explosive at a time when the EU is demanding a £50billion divorce bill from Britain.

Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, said: “I suppose these junket expenses are all part of the make-believe Brexit bill which these commissioners have plucked from thin air and are trying to extort from the Government.”

The European Commission said that private planes were only hired when commercial flights did not match commissioners’ schedules or for security reasons. Speaking to reporters in Brussels, the commission spokesman said: “I think we do publish information on expenses whenever we are asked to provide information.

“I think it is not possible on a caseby-case

basis to publish all expenses of people travelling.”

However, Ms Darbishire said: “I think that the EU commissioners are not used to this scrutiny.

“If they want to win public trust in the EU then they need to counter allegations about the way they spend money. It’s damaging.”

Ms Darbishire has complained to the European Ombudsman, which oversees data access requests, about the failure to provide more information about commissioners’ expenses. She said: “Maybe it’s reasonable, but if you’re not upfront about it, it looks bad. We’re going to keep going.

“Now it’s in the hands of the European Ombudsman – they may recommend that the Commission publish them.

“We also have the option of going to the European Court of Justice.”

Jean-claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, is paid about £260,000 a year, £100,000 more than Theresa May.

The EU’S 28 commissioners are paid between £18,000 and £21,700 a month.

They pay a tax rate of 23 per cent, lower than Belgian taxpayers, and enjoy generous pensions.

Ms Darbishire added: “Giving 120 requesters only two months’ worth of expenses data is a token gesture.

“The Commission has told us that it has had lengthy discussions about how to handle these requests over the course of the past six months.

“That time could have been better spent responding to the requests.”

A European Commission spokesman said: “Being a member of the European Commission is a political function.

“Attending events is an integral part of the job. Commissioners are all over the world ambassadors of Europe, also including their home country.”

‘I cannot see any rationale for not letting European taxpayers know how their money is being spent’