A UK Euro-MP has blown the whistle accusing several colleagues, amongst them the Basque Socialist Eider Gardiazabal, of unduly claiming 300 euros in expenses from the European Parliament, and this has given rise to a series of doubts amongst the public at large regarding the work Euro-MPs do in general, and the Basques in particular. Who are the busiest and hardest working of the four Basque delegates - Izaskun Bilbao (Basque National Party - BNP), Eider Gardiazabal (Socialist Party - PSE), Carlos Iturgaiz (Popular Party - PP) and Jaime Mayor Oreja (PP) – representing us in Brussels and Strasburg? Who ask, question, contribute, speak and write most on issues that directly affect us as Basques? According to the log of questions, speeches, motions and reports made by the four Basque Euro-MPs since this parliamentary term began in June 2009, the Nationalist Party’s Euro-MP Izaskun Bilbao wins by a mile. This Basque nationalist is five times more active than her socialist and popular party counterparts combined. Whereas she alone has subscribed 235 actions involving questions, motions, contributions and reports, the other three Basques together have accumulated just 53.

In the parliamentary term to date, Izaskun Bilbao has submitted 132 questions to the European Commission and to the Council, on a wide range of issues including piracy in Somalia and Operation Atalanta, anchovy quotas, the situation in the Western Sahara, and, more recently, the state of the ship-building sector, the widespread theft of copper and the attempted fraud involving the designation of origin of txakoli wine. This figure makes her the 34th busiest member out of the 736 Euro-MPs that make up the EU Parliament. Furthermore, she has spoken no fewer than 80 times – also attending 94.79% of the plenary sessions – in sittings at which being granted a minute requires a great deal of negotiation within each political group. This figure means that she is the fifth Spanish Euro-MP in terms of contributions made.

Yet speaking and asking is not all she does. Izaskun Bilbao has also tabled 13 motions on resolutions, amended 11 reports and subscribed one as a rapporteur, according to data provided by the European Parliament and the website VoteWatch, using statistical methods developed by the London School of Economics (http://www.votewatch.eu/static/about_us.php) and which seeks to inform European citizens about the work performed by Europe’s institutions. A result that certainly shows up the performance over these past two years of legislature by certain colleagues, especially the popular party member Jaime Mayor Oreja, by far the one who has shown the least interest in his parliamentary duties if one focuses on a quantitative analysis of his contribution.