The head of the EU’s spending watchdog is accused of claiming expenses for a flat he barely lived in, using a chauffeur service for non-EU trips and lobbying fellow officials on behalf of clients of a law firm where he is employed.
Klaus-Heiner Lehne, president of the European Court of Auditors, claimed around €325,000 (£280,000) of taxpayer money for the property he barely occupies close to the institution’s Luxembourg-based headquarters, according to a newspaper investigation.
Mr Lehne also took advantage of an EU’s car service, which ferried him between the Grand Duchy and his home town of Düsseldorf, where he was politically active with Germany’s Christian Democrats and worked as a lawyer, for just €100 a month.
The former German MEP, who earns €24,000 a month auditing the EU’s accounts, was previously accused of lobbying the body’s competition authority on behalf of his clients at Taylor Wessing, a commercial law firm.
Mr Lehne and senior European legislators, with whom he is politically aligned, have threatened to launch legal action to gag journalists seeking to expose EU sleaze.
Of course, it’s Britain that is the corrupt place, what with Boris, isn’t it?
‘legal action to gag journalists seeking to expose EU sleaze.’
Or as they put it these days, to make hate speech illegal.
“The former German MEP, who earns €24,000 a month auditing the EU’s accounts…”
Is that why it takes so long to audit the accounts? Wouldn’t want to stop the gravy train by completing the task.
The EU’s accounts are so corrupt that since the middle of the 1990s the court of auditors has consistently refused to sign them off. You could hardly blame Herr Lehne knowing his job is a joke and deciding to get in on the action.
Perhaps Spud should apply for this post. After all, he has ideal qualifications and experience
Boris used to live in Brussels and probably learnt a thing or two. And wasn’t his father employed in that same sort of international organisation world? He may have passed on lessons too.
Wouldn’t it be amusing if it turned out that the decoration of no. 10 had been funded by an EU “grant”?
Can we leave yet? 🙂