Voorzitter Europarlement gemaand om te stoppen met privévluchten (en)

European Parliament President Pat Cox has come under pressure to stop using private chartered flights.

According to the Hamburg-based magazine Stern, Mr Cox chartered a private plane five times in 2003 and three times in 2002.

This is, however, not according to the rules, reports Stern.

One month ago the Parliament's administration proposed to amend the internal rules on travel expenses to explicitly allow for the hiring of charter planes and to take into account Mr Cox's "current practice".

But the Parliament's Questors rejected this proposal unanimously.

German Green MEP and substitute member of the Budget Control Committee Heide Rühle said this "embarrassing" practise should be stopped.

Mr Cox said, according to Stern, he would still continue to charter private flights, as this was the only possible way of bringing him from his home in Cork in South-Eastern Ireland to some far-away places in Eastern Europe.