By Martin Banks - 31st March 2011
There are crooks in all professions, including journalism
Elmar Brok
An MEP at the centre of allegations that he was prepared to amend EU legislation in return for financial gain has told this website: "I've done nothing wrong."
Spanish EPP member Pablo Zalba Bidegain is the latest to be accused of submitting changes to EU laws in exchange for monetary reward.
Zalba was offered by Sunday Times journalists posing as lobbyists up to €100,000 in fees per year in exchange for pushing through requested amendments to legislation.
Paul de Clerck from Alter-EU, an alliance for lobbying transparency, said Zalba should resign.
However, the Spanish MEP, who is a former businessman, said he had done nothing wrong.
Speaking exclusively to this website on Thursday, he said, "I was approached by someone I thought was a lobbyist, but there is nothing wrong in that.
"I later discovered to my shock that this person was a fake lobbyist.
"However, I want to stress that I did not accept any offer of money or financial gain in return for amending legislation.
"I have always followed parliament's rules of procedures and did so in this case.
"The newspaper published a video of the conversation I had with their journalist but this was what can only be called a cut-and-paste job and not a very good one at that.
"It was most certainly not a proper reflection of the conversation but skewed in a way to suit the Sunday Times.
"I am an honest and simple MEP and have not committed anything wrong," added the MEP, who said he favoured moves to press for more transparency in lobbying activities in Brussels.
Zalba, a member of the international trade committee, recently steered through the approval of a safeguard clause attached to the EU's free-trade accord with South Korea.
He is also a substitute member on the economic and monetary affairs committee.
He said the case was "very different" to the three other MEPs named by the Sunday Times, saying, "In the case of one of them, Ernst Strasser, the EPP group actually asked for him to resign.
"Have they done that with me? No. That tells you something about how they feel. The fact is that I have the full support of both my group and parliament.
"This is very different to the Strasser case. As far as I am concerned there is no case to answer.
"I do not know why they approached me but my conscience is clear. Some people want to make a story out of nothing but I accepted no money or favours."
Senior EPP member Elmar Brok, a German member, agreed that the case was "different" to Strasser, who was forced to resign, but he added, "If there is any evidence of wrongdoing, of course there should be a full investigation."
Brok also said that other MEPs were being "tarred with the same brush" by the scandal. He also lamented the ethical journalism standards of the paper, saying "This was entrapment."
"I feel this is unfair because there are crooks in all professions, including journalism."
The Sunday Times reporters approached 60 MEPs in all as part of an undercover investigation into alleged corruption.
Zalba said that the fake lobbyists offered him the chance to become a member of the board of their pressure group, which he refused.
He also said he refused money to table an amendment.
According to Spanish daily El Mundo, Zalba is the only Spanish MEP to have been "caught out" by the Sunday Times.
An EPP spokesman said Zalba had not taken any money for the amendments and there was no reason for him to resign.
Earlier on Thursday, parliament's president Jerzy Buzek said parliament had given its agreement to an Olaf investigation into the newspaper allegations.
He said the offices of three of the MEPs targeted by the newspaper had been locked but a spokesman for Buzek told this website that this not apply to Zalba´s office.
