Transparency
Transparency is crucial for democratic decision-making processes, and we Greens want to take charge by setting the right example. That is why we publish all lobbying meetings with interest groups. You will also find the rail kilometres I travel, a breakdown of expenses of the monthly general expenditure allowance and my voting behaviour on this page. For more information about myself, please go to more about me.
» The Green Deal is the premise for the EU-Western Balkan policy. Commissioner Várhelyi must ensure this in his proposals and should not push his own agenda «
- Thomas Waitz in euractiv.com am 2020-10-06
Lobbying Transparency
The Greens/EFA group is committed to lobbying transparency and is the first political group in the European Parliament to publish information about every meeting held with lobbyists and interest representatives such as civil society organisations. This list allows all citizens to see whom Green MEPs are meeting, when they are meeting them and what they discuss with outside stakeholders.
Rail Kilometres
Parliamentary work as a Member of the European Parliament does not only require travel to Brussels and Strasbourg but also across Austria to visit local green groups and meet citizens. To keep the carbon footprint as small as possible, I make most of my journeys by train.
Since I took office on 10/11/2017, I have already travelled 118.077 km by train. As a result, 21.845 kg CO2 were emitted less than if I had travelled this distance by plane. An average grown beech would need about 1.748 years to reduce this amount of CO2.
(Calculation based on values of the german Federal Environment Agency)
General Expenditure Allowance
Europe often stands accused of providing an opportunity for elected MEPs to ride a ‘gravy train’. Such accusations tend to be based on misinformation or a hostile press and media pursuing an anti-European agenda. Every MEP office receives a monthly General Expenditure Allowance of 4416.00 euros, to cover expenditure relating to the exercise of the parliamentary mandate. The Greens/EFA Group has decided to take the lead and we, therefore, have been publishing our expenses since 2018. We provide a quarterly overview as well as a graphical chart of the costs on this site.
2020
2021
2022
2023
A detailed list of the issues can be downloaded from the following link: General Allowance 2nd term [as of January 03, 2024]. A detailed description of the categories used here can be found here
Voting transparency
The European Parliament livestreams all plenary sessions and committee meetings. Furthermore, the voting results for each plenary session are published.
