Andreasen fails in bid for EU budget committee

Former European Commission chief accountant Marta Andreasen has been rebuffed
after trying to grab a senior position on the European Parliament’s influential
budgetary control committee.

The newly-minted UK Independence Party MEP had stood to become a vice-chair,
but she was voted down by the parliament’s socialist and pro-federalist European
People’s Party group.

Andreasen said later: ‘This is a measure of how much they fear me. My
priority will always be transparency and accountability in public funds – this
move shows neither.’

The treasurer of the anti-federalist UK Independence Party, the
Argentina-born Spaniard only gained nine of the committee’s 29 votes in a secret
ballot.

She will remain a member of the committee, however, and promised to be an
activist in scrutinising European Union spending.

This tough stance led to her sacking as Commission chief accountant in 2004,
sparking an unsuccessful attempt to be reinstated. Liberal Democrat MEP Chris
Davies said the parliament had ‘shot itself in the foot’ in opposing Andreasen.

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