Rules governing the payment of expenses and allowances to Members of the European Parliament - Review of the use of allowances - Parliamentary assistance allowance - Justification of expenditure - Recovery of undue payments.

Judgment of the General Court (Eighth Chamber) of 24 March 2011 – Dover v Parliament (Case T-149/09) Rules governing the payment of expenses and allowances to Members of the European Parliament – Review of the use of allowances – Parliamentary assistance allowance – Justification of expenditure – Recovery of undue payments 1.                     Procedure – Measures of organisation of procedure – Request that internal documents of an institution be removed from the file – Documents irregularly obtained – Retention on file – Criteria (see paras 61-63) 2.                     Acts of the institutions – Statement of reasons – Obligation – Scope – Decision of the Secretary-General of the European Parliament concerning the recovery of sums paid to an MEP by way of parliamentary assistance allowance – Duty to state specific, adequate reasons for each amount regarded as unjustified (Art. 253 EC) (see paras 98-99, 109, 111) 3.                     European Parliament – Regulation governing the payment of expenses and allowances to Members of the European Parliament – Parliamentary assistance allowance – Lack of documents to evidence use in accordance with rules – Obligation to repay – Conditions for granting the allowance met at the time of the application – No effect (see paras 122-124) 4.                     European Parliament – Regulation governing the payment of expenses and allowances to Members of the European Parliament – Parliamentary assistance allowance – Provider of parliamentary assistance services not having honoured his tax obligations arising from the fees relating thereto – Liability of the MEP making the application vis-à-vis the Parliament – None (see paras 150-155) Re: APPLICATION for annulment of Decision D (2009) 4639 of the Secretary-General of the European Parliament of 29 January 2009 concerning the recovery of sums paid to the applicant by way of parliamentary allowances. Operative part The Court: 1. Annuls Decision D (2009) 4639 of the Secretary-General of the European Parliament of 29 January 2009 as regards the recovery of the sum of GBP 193 001; 2. Dismisses the action as to the remainder; 3. Orders the Parliament and Mr Densmore Ronald Dover each to bear their own costs.