Friends of Clean Accounts is a group of European politicians advocating and working towards "clean accounts" of the EU. By this they mean ordinary (i.e., proper) accounting and controlling, leading to efficient use of funds throughout the EU. An important part of this endeavor is transparent information and free access to it.

Overview

This group has been initiated by people of the EU-critical SOS Democracy, but comprises all those interested in its purpose – including proponents of the EU.

Gabriele Stauner Gabriele Stauner (born 22 April 1948) is a German politician and a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Germany. She is a member of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria, part of the European People's Party. Education and early ca ...

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member of the EU Parliament's

Budget Control Committee A budget is a calculation play, usually but not always financial, for a defined period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including time, costs and expenses, environmenta ...

, presides most of the group's meetings, organized by the group's speaker Jens-Peter Bonde and

Chris Heaton-Harris Christopher Heaton-Harris (born 28 November 1967) is an English politician who has served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland since 6 September 2022. Early life and education Born on 28 November 1967, Heaton-Harris attended the Tiffin ...

. The Friends of Clean Accounts also supports so called "

whistle-blower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

s" in their fight against

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

within the EU institutions and EU projects. So they warred off the dismissal of

Paul van Buitenen Paul van Buitenen (; born 28 May 1957) is a retired Dutch politician of the Europe Transparent Party who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2009. He was an assistant-auditor in the European Commission's Financial Contro ...

. Or invited the suspended Chief Auditor Marta AndreasenInfo
on '' The Times'' to the EU Parliament to present her analyses of the grave faults of EU accounts and ways to improvement. Or supported

Hans-Martin Tillack Hans-Martin Tillack (born 1961 in Königs Wusterhausen, near Berlin), is a German reporter, who grew up in Stuttgart. He studied politology and sociology in Marburg and Berlin, worked for five years as reporter for taz before coming to Stern in 199 ...

– editor of ''

Stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

'', who also revealed the Eurostat scandal and with

Andreas Oldag Andreas ( el, Ἀνδρέας) is a name usually given to males in Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Denmark, Armenia, Estonia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Finland, Flanders, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, the Netherlands, and Indonesia. The name ...

is a co-author of a book on the EU ''Spaceship Brussels'' ''(Raumschiff Brüssel)'' – in his rights as he was arrested by Belgian police at the request of the EU anti-fraud office OLAF. They also made pressure on the Santer Commission to withdraw on March 19, 1999, collected signatures for the

Motion of Censure against the Commission In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer an ...

during spring of 2004 on the grounds of the

Eurostat Eurostat ('European Statistical Office'; DG ESTAT) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in the Kirchberg, Luxembourg, Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statis ...

scandal.

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

''Friends of Clean Accounts - Who Are We?''
on Jens-Peter Bonde's serve
bonde.com

reports
from the Friends of Clean Accounts Politics of the European Union Transparency (behavior)

Overview

See also

References

External links