Quote:
Former political sleaze watchdogs Lord Nolan and Sir Gordon Downey have been named as possible candidates to head a new European Union drive against fraud.
Alan Donnelly MEP, who leads the European Parliamentary Labour Party, said either of the two would be "perfect" to head an independent inquiry into alleged fraud, nepotism and financial mismanagement in the EU budget.
Lord Nolan is the former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life. Sir Gordon stood down from the post of Parliamentary Standards Commissioner towards the end of last year.
Alan Donnelly: An independent inquiry is needed
The fraud claims led to crisis in relations between the European Parliament and the EU Commission last week, and raised the prospect of the mass sacking of the entire EU executive.
In the end, however, the European Parliament backed off using this "nuclear option" to censure the Commission, but has called for a report on the fraud allegations by March.
Quote:
A report on the misuse of expenses by MEPs is likely to be kept secret by the European Parliament despite growing calls for it to be made public.
The internal audit exposes money-making scams without naming individuals and shows “embezzlement and fraud on a massive scale”, according to the MEP who revealed its existence.
But parliament insiders said that today’s meeting of the budget control committee would not result in publication because senior figures were afraid of setting a precedent on publishing confidential auditors’ documents.
