Paul van Buitenen
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Paul van Buitenen (born 28 May, 1957 in Breda) was a Dutch assistant-auditor in the European Commission’s Financial Control Directorate who became the whistle blower who first drew the attention of a Member of the European Parliament to the irregularities, fraud and mismanagement within the Commission in 1998.
For this, he was suspended, had his salary halved and ordered to face disciplinary action. He fought on and his exposures triggered the collapse of Jacques Santer's Commission, of which Edith Cresson was particularly criticised.
Eventually he was (at least partially) forgiven and he returned to the organisation in 2003, in a different capacity. Nevertheless, he would later leave for good in order to pursue a political career.
He has been named 'European of the Year' by Reader's Digest magazine and the Australian Broadcasting Commission. He said he would donate his prize money to a fund in the Netherlands for helping other whistleblowers and he wrote a book which reveals the whole story.
Paul van Buitenen is now being completely vindicated, and reforms are being made. A body to oversee standards in Euro-public life has been created - along the lines of the UK's Nolan Committee. European Commission vice-president Neil Kinnock was involved in these reforms - but was not very keen on Paul van Buitenen's actions.
Pledging to continue his fight against fraud and bureaucratic inefficiency on the European level, Van Buitenen founded a party named Europa Transparant, ran with it for the European Parliament in the 2004 elections (in the Netherlands) and won two seats for his party. Van Buitenen joined the Greens-EFA group in the European Parliament as an independent member [1] (http://www.greens-efa.org/en/press/detail.php?id=1971&lg=en).
His current functions in the European Parliament are
- Member of the Committee on Budgetary Control,
- Substitute for the Committee on Petitions and
- Substitute for the Delegation for relations with Switzerland, Iceland and Norway and to the European Economic Area (EEA) Joint Parliamentary Committee.
Biography
- 1977: Foundation course in mechanical engineering (Eindhoven Technical College
- 1979-1980: Military service
- 1980: Diploma in bookkeeping
- 1980-1985: Assistant accountant
- 1983: Foundation course at the Netherlands Institute of Certified Public Accountants
- 1985-1986: Head of the planning department in a manufacturing company
- 1986-1990: University budget policy adviser
- 1990-2002 and 2003-2004: Official of the European Commission
- 2002-2003: Financial management advisor to the police
See also: European Parliament election, 2004 (Netherlands)
External links
- Template:EP MEP info/6th term
- Template:Declaration of financial interests of the 6th term
- Brussels whistleblower quits in despair (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2219114.stm)
- Article about van Buitenen's whistle-blowing (http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2465/is_1_31/ai_70910930)
- Articles mentioning van Buitenen (http://www.findarticles.com/p/search?tb=art&qt=%22Paul+Van+Buitenen%22)
- EUABC article about van Buitenen (http://www.euabc.com/index.phtml?word_id=116)nl:Paul van Buitenen