Friday, 30th May 2008
Euro MP slams £3.2million European Parliament social network
Scottish Conservative MEP Struan Stevenson has condemned a European Parliament scheme to create a private social networking website as a “shameful waste of money”.
Costing the taxpayer £3.2 million, the site will be solely for MEPs, NGOs and trade associations, and will not even be visible to the public.
Struan Stevenson said:
“This is a shameful waste of money by the European Parliament. There are many important projects that are crying out for funding, so to waste this kind of money on what amounts to an online private members’ club is inexcusable.
“Communication between MEPs and NGOs is certainly important but there are other channels through which we can do this that already exist and work perfectly well. Any advances in technology that allow us to work smarter and quicker should be welcomed, but this is just an expensive rehash of existing social networking sites such as Facebook, which many MEPs already use.
“I for one will be sticking with a free network, as not only does it not cost the taxpayers a penny, it allows us to interact with members of the public which is, at the end of the day, what we’re here to do!”
