[gatagato]

Video footage of MEPs slapping and pushing a journalist filming them while they claim a £258 daily allowance after arriving arrived at work in the evening has sparked new calls for reform to the EU assembly.

The European Parliament pays the "subsistence allowance", which is paid without any proof of expenditure, when MEPs sign an attendance register in Brussels.

The payment is known as the "sign in and slope off" allowance and is notorious for allowing MEPs to pocket the allowance without staying in the EU assembly, or even Brussels, to do any work.

In a repeat of a past incident five years ago, Tom Staal, a Dutch journalist, filmed two MEPs arriving during the late afternoon to claim the allowance after the working day has ended.

He is slapped and pushed by two MEPs, Miroslav Ransdorf, a far-left Czech deputy and Raffaele Baldassarre, form the Italian centre-right, after confronting them about cashing in without having worked.

"You have just signed in at half past six in the evening," he tells Mr Baldassarre, the Italian MEP.

During an increasingly angry confrontation, the Dutch journalist as Mr Staal asks Mr Baldassarre how he can justify the claim before the Italian MEP attacks him and his camera crew.

"You can sign in five times per week. It isn't dealt with because MEP's don't consider it a problem," the Dutch journalist said.

MEPs are automatically given £91,000 in daily subsistence and in "general expenditure" expenses a year without having to provide any receipts or proof of expenditure.

On top of that, the EU parliament's 754 MEPs each have a parliamentary assistance allowance worth almost £220,000 each a year.

"If it really is a case of MEPs claiming expenses without doing any work, then some MEPs have clearly failed to learn from the previous scandals affecting the European Parliament," said the Open Europe think tanks.

"Whether or not the MEPs are guilty of abusing taxpayers, the allowances system in the European Parliament needs to change so that we know that MEPs actually get paid for the work they're supposed to do."

European Parliament officials justified the daily payments and claimed that other professions, such as journalists, benefited from similar arrangements.

"It's not for showing up for work. An MEP may start work next day 8/9am and needs to be in Brussels the night before," said an official.

"We don't know where 99 per cent stay in Brussels. They get their per diem and need not say where they stay."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...slope-off.html
http://www.geenstijl.tv/2013/06/tom_...t_eu_op_1.html

[Angelahh]

lol wth did I just watch... prost

[Xfactor]

He had the look of shit busted all over his face

[kellyhound]

suddenly he doesn't understand english anymore lol
money wasting/grabbing bastards.
reminds me of this cunt and her expenses scandal together with many other uk politicians exposed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroness_Uddin
No doubt more than half of all politicians are crooks.

[PoetsOfTheFall]

politicians

[bluepinktriangle]

Is it ignorant of me to imagine they are fighting over pizza?

[bdjackass318]

. The altercation was funny. Them basically stealing not so funny.

[gatagato]

Transcript

وما هو في الواقع مشكوك فيها نفسك؟ ميلو صفعة وتأتي فقط مع الخاص التشيكية :300 .€ "أنا (كذا) في مؤت18:30 لقد صدمت من جراء فقدان هذا التلفزيون الهولندي الكذب والسلوك العادي للصحفيين .." يا لذلك. فمن مرة أخرى إلى وسائل الإعلام. يجب أن نعرف: هذا رد فعل تنبع من الشيوعية الاحتيالية الذي تسبب بالفعل في حادث سيارة، والنوم أثناء الاجتماعات بانتظام. وسيكون ذلك في الساعة ظهرا، وذلك دخول للذهاب؟ للعمل وفي الحلم. ننتقل إلى بالداساري رافاييل Vaffanculo!

LOL, Baldassarre has been changing parties just as one changes clothes:

1982: Democrazia Cristiana
1991 - 1994: Partito Popolare Italiano
1998 - 1999: CDU
1999: CDL
2001: Forza Italia
2004: Centrodestra
2009 - Present: Popolo delle libertà

One average italian worker must work for days, to earn what he gets in one day (only as "subsistence allowance") for doing NOTHING (or even worse as you can see).
Oh, and for the members of parliament in Italy is even easier: they can steal our money straight from their bank account, not even need to sign everyday. And these parasites wonder why, every now and then, someone puts a bomb under their ass: what do you do when you find out that your cat has fleas?

[Megamel29]

Sweet deal. Where do I sign up?