Now Euro MPs want a secret vote to block budget deal and defy the 27 leaders

  • Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, suggested private vote
  • It would allow MEPs to rebel against prime ministers and party leaders
  • If a fifth of MEPs declare that they want budget vote to be a secret ballot this is how it will be conducted

By James Chapman for the Daily Mail

Published: 20:38 EST, 8 February 2013 | Updated: 20:38 EST, 8 February 2013


Secrecy: European Parliament President Martin Schulz suggested a vote on the budget should be conducted in secret

Secrecy: European Parliament President Martin Schulz suggested a vote on the budget should be conducted in secret

Euro MPs prompted uproar last night by plotting to try to block the budget deal using a secret ballot so voters cannot hold them to account.

It emerged that they are planning to use a little-understood procedure to allow them to vote in private and defy  the 27 EU leaders.

Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament and former leader of its socialist group, suggested a vote on the budget should be conducted in secret to allow MEPs to break away from prime ministers and party leaders and maximise the chances of it being rejected.

A vote behind closed doors would also spare Euro MPs’ blushes ahead of European elections in 2014, when voters seeing austerity imposed at home might punish their profligacy.

If a fifth of MEPs – 150 – declare that they want the budget vote to be a secret ballot, that is how it will be conducted under the European Parliament’s rules.

A senior British official described the idea as a ‘shocking subversion of democracy’.

But Mr Schulz declared: ‘As president of the Parliament . . . I cannot, will not and indeed may not accept what amount to deficit budgets.’ He claimed cutting spending breached EU treaties which state that financial means will be made available ‘to allow the Union to fulfil its legal obligations in respect of third parties’.

He added: ‘More and more tasks and less and less money . . . the European Parliament will not go along with this.’

Hannes Swoboda, the current leader of the European socialists and democrats, said: ‘The agreement of the European Parliament for the figures discussed is not imaginable.’

Guarantee: The threat of a secret vote will pile pressure on Ed Miliband to guarantee that Labour MEPs, who belong to the group, will not attempt to block the budget

Guarantee: The threat of a secret vote will pile pressure on Ed Miliband to guarantee that Labour MEPs, who belong to the group, will not attempt to block the budget

Their stance will pile pressure on Ed Miliband to guarantee that Labour MEPs, who belong to the group, will not attempt to block the budget.

Richard Ashworth, leader of the Tories in Brussels, said: ‘This is a ridiculous ruse and a disgrace to the institution president Schulz is supposed to run.’

Martin Callanan, leader of the European conservatives and reformists group, said: ‘If MEPs want to reject an agreement made by their own prime ministers then they should have the courage of their convictions and not try to cower behind a procedural technicality.’

A budget vote is expected to take place in the European Parliament in March.