BRUSSELS WATCH: EC Defends 2-Month Travel Bill Of Near E500000

By Tara Oakes

     BRUSSELS (MNI) - The European Commission Wednesday defended commissioners'

travel expenses approaching E500000 for a two month period.

     Figures requested by NGO Access Info revealed a total price tag of E492,249

over January-February 2016, with Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini's

E75,000 trip to Baku the most expensive, according to Belgian magazine Knack.

     The bill for EC President Jean-Claude Juncker's trip to Rome in February

2016 included a private air taxi which topped E25000 for the 9-person

delegation.

     EC Spokesperson Mina Andreeva insisted that the air taxi was chartered

because there was no viable commercial option.

     Defending the EC's decision not to publish expenses in the same rolling way

as UK MPs now face after the British parliamentary expenses scandal, the EC said

it was "one of the most transparent administrations in the world" and that

constant updates would not be cost-effective.

     "I don't agree that it's just about putting up a PDF," Andreeva said when

asked why the documents couldn't be uploaded online when filed.

     Juncker's average stood at slightly over two missions every month, about a

third of which were to the European parliament's second seat in Strasbourg, the

EC said.

     But defending the costs by using Strasbourg is unlikely to calm those

angered by the expense figures, given that the cost of the monthly decamping of

officials from Brussels to France has already raised eyebrows, standing at

roughly E114mln a year.

     A group of MEPs from across the bloc and the political spectrum argued in

Euractiv in July for a "single seat" European parliament -- but the campaign is

yet to gain serious political traction, they conceded.

     "Year after year we have voted with large majorities to end this wasteful

circus, but so far to no avail," MEPs Anna Maria Corazza Bildt, Pina Picierno,

Ashley Fox, Beatriz Becerra, Dennis De Jong and Ulrike Lunacek wrote.

--MNI Brussels Bureau; +44 203-865-3851; email: tara.oakes@marketnews.com

--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 203-586-2225; email: les.commons@marketnews.com

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