Together with journalists from all over Europe, Follow the Money is starting an investigation into potential misconduct by Members of the European Parliament. Help us dig up scandals!
The highlight of European democracy, the election of the next European Parliament, will take place in June 2024. European citizens will get to vote on who will represent us in the European Parliament on big issues like migration, climate, and farming.
But.. who are these 705 Members of the European Parliament? How can we assess their honesty and gauge whether citizens can trust them? And what is their stance on ethics and the law?
Especially after news broke about the bribery allegations in the scandal now known as ‘Qatargate’, this is an important matter. Therefore, Follow the Money will ask tough but relevant questions about the past activities, ethics, and conduct of our current and prospective MEPs in a joint investigation with journalists from all over Europe.
Looking into bad behaviour
In the upcoming weeks, we will systematically map the misconduct of all MEPs. For this investigation, we will use a method developed in the Netherlands by two social scientists and an investigative journalist.
We will start by charting every scandal or other integrity issue involving current MEPs published in the media. Misuse of EU funds? Private trips or party conventions sponsored with EU money? Fraud and corruption in a MEP’s home country? Both past behaviour and current affairs will be examined.
This will give us an insight into which political groups have the most and which have the least number of MEPs with a bad track record.
Keeping them honest
We aim to repeat this investigation in a few months when all the new candidates for the upcoming elections are known. And we will repeat this exercise in 5 years, when a new European Parliament is to be elected, to see if anything has changed – for better or for worse.
We expect that publishing a round of articles about such affairs will provide political parties with an incentive to improve the overall integrity of their candidate MEPs.
We need your help!
Misconduct may have occurred on a scale that did not reach beyond national borders, for instance, because the MEP misbehaved a decade ago when he or she was a mayor. With your help, we can make sure this information is incorporated into our database.
Our investigation will look not just at publicly available data, but also examine new information, including tips from anonymous sources. We believe there are many untold stories waiting to be reported.
So if you have heard anything you think we should know about and you are able to back it up with sources or documents, or if you have spotted some relevant issue in the local, regional, or national press regarding an MEP, let us know!
You can share your story (anonymously, if you want) below, or get in touch directly with one of the other European media outlets that have joined this investigation. The protection of sources is one of the rights and duties of journalists.
You can send electronic documents to Follow the Money securely using whistleblower platform Publeaks that offers the safest technical infrastructure
- Your identity will remain strictly confidential
- Communication is encrypted
- One-way communication
