MEP Hilde Vautmans (Open Vld) implicated by former assistants

Ms Vautmans is also alderman of Saint-Trond (Limburg). Europe subjects such accumulation to strict rules. Parliamentary collaborators cannot therefore carry out any local activity if it is not linked to the European mandate.

However, it appears that a neighbor of Ms Vautmans is paid by the European Parliament as a “local collaborator”. The status is authorized but the tasks carried out must remain within the framework of the parliamentary mandate. According to several testimonies, the person in question has never been seen in Brussels in the corridors of the European institutions. She would rather act as a “handyman” for Mrs. Vautmans and her family.

Other collaborators were asked to spend entire days in Limburg to help distribute election leaflets and sometimes even forced to take their vacation to do so. They also had to pay out of their own pockets for telephone costs incurred for their work with the liberal MP, while parliamentarians receive the monthly sum of 4,950 euros to cover such costs. Ms. Vautmans does not make her expense reports public and does not reimburse the overpayment. However, in addition to a net salary of 8,000 euros and daily allowances of 350 euros, she receives an alderman’s salary estimated at 5,000 euros.

The MP, head of her party’s list in the next elections, denounced “defamatory and anonymous allegations”. She claims to have documents which would show her “strict compliance with the rules”.

On Sunday during the program “De Zevende Dag”, the president of the Open VLD, Tom Ongena, explained that he had questioned Ms. Vautmans about this affair. “She assures me that everything went according to the rules and that there is strict control. Hilde is one of the hardest-working MPs,” he added.