The European Parliament today voted on 5 candidates for the EU's court of auditors, voting to oppose the Polish candidate (1). A 6th candidate (from Malta) withdrew his candidacy following a negative recommendation from parliament's budgetary control committee. After the vote, Green transparency spokesperson and rapporteur/draftsman for the parliament on the votes Igor Soltes said:

"For too long, appointments to the EU's Court of Auditors have been treated as jobs for the boys. It is high time this ended. Given the crucial role of the court in ensuring budgetary transparency and highlighting problems with the EU budget's implementation, it is essential to appoint members with both the requisite professional experience and no doubts about their independence and potential conflicts of interest. This was not the case with 3 of the 6 candidates proposed in this round of appointments to the court.

"It is welcome that MEPs have today followed the recommendation of parliament's budgetary control committee to this end in voting to oppose the Polish candidate. Unfortunately, MEPs did not support the recommendation to oppose the Slovak candidate. We now expect the Polish candidate, Mr Wojciechowski, to live up to the commitment made in his declaration and withdraws his candidacy, as the Maltese candidate has already done pre-emptively. With no female candidates in this round of 6 candidates, despite no shortage of qualified female candidates, we would also urge EU governments to make redressing the gender imbalance in EU institutions a priority when they consider proposing candidates from now on."

(1) More details of the vote available at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/20160407IPR21780/Parliament-backs-four-out-of-five-nominees-to-the-European-Court-of-Auditors

(2) More details of the Green recommendations can be found at: http://www.greens-efa.eu/making-oversight-work-15421.html

Richard More O'Ferrall,

Press and media advisor, social media coordinator,

Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament

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