By Brian Johnson and Francesca Ross - 20th July 2009
Today's secret vote is a measure of how much they fear me. My priority will always be transparency and accountability in public funds …this move shows neither
Marta Andreasen
MEPs have blocked the whistle blowing former European commission accountant Marta Andreasen's bid to become a vice-chair of the assembly's budgetary control committee.
The parliament's EPP and socialist groups joined forces on Monday to form a blocking majority in the budgetary control committee to reject Andreasen, who was sacked in 2004 as the EU’s chief accountant after exposing irregular accounting practices.
Following a secret ballot, where Andreasen picked up nine of the committee's 29 votes, the Argentinian-born Spaniard, a newly elected MEP and treasurer of the anti-federalist United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) said the decision to block her was, "not a good start for this committee."
She told theparliament.com that, "Today's secret vote is a measure of how much they fear me. My priority will always be transparency and accountability in public funds …this move shows neither."
She immediately withdrew her candidature and called for Belgian Greens deputy Bart Staes to replace her as first vice-chair. After group consultations, Staes was unanimously elected.
ALDE deputy Chris Davies said he was unhappy with the way the two main groups' had agreed another parliament stitch-up.
"This parliament has again shot itself in the foot. This sends out the message that if you speak out against corruption, you will be penalised by the European parliament."
Fellow ALDE MEP, Jorgo Chatzimarkakis also had sympathy for Andreasen.
“The ALDE group voted in favour of the whole [D'Hondt] package – once you accept to support something you should keep to it," he argued.
However the German deputy added that, “it was important that Andreasen was replaced by a member of a small group and that was done in the most elegant way possible.”
“I hope she will now cooperate as it will not help if she feels she now has to go against the whole system.”
Committee chair and vice chairs are normally agreed in advance among the parliament's political groups using the assembly's complex D'Hondt allocation system of parliament positions.
Committee nominees under D'Hondt are normally rubber stamped by the committee members at their initial 'constituent' meetings, at the start of each parliamentary term.
However, as members of the committee sat down on Monday to agree their new chair and vice-chairs, German EPP deputy Ingeborg Grässle immediately called for a secret ballot of members on each post.
Grässle's call seemed to catch many committee members by surprise. ALDE members were initially concerned that the EPP and socialists were looking to reject their candidate for the chair of the committee, Luigi de Magistris.
Eventually the situation was rectified and de Magistris was confirmed in the post.
Grässle was unrepentant about the link up with the committee's socialists to block Andreasen's vice-chair bid.
"We have serious work to do in this committee. If she [Andreasen] is serious, then she can now spend five years proving that she is serious about the committee's work," she said.
"Andreasen's criticism of the commission is in the past. She needs to be a person of the future, not of the past. It's a question of responsibility. I'm not the greatest fan of the commission, but people on this committee need to act in a responsible manner."
However, Andreasen vowed to play an active role in the committee as an ordinary member.
"I'll be free to say what I think as a member. I know that they don't like Ukip, this is a fact of life in the parliament. But I want to be engaged in the work of this committee."
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.