I agree QM, that in this particular instance the EU administration has demonstrated incompetence rather than corruption. It is Mr Stewart jnr who has been corrupt. The EU saves its corruption to expend in far larger quantities.
"An insider told the Telegraph: "There will be questions asked about this""
Yes I'm sure there will be. Apart from the fraud, one question that might be addressed is the staggering magnitude of the pension (£48k pa following 12 years’ service). At the time of Mr Stewart’s service MEPs were paid the equivalent of a Westminster MP’s salary. In July 1996 they were awarded a hefty increase from £34k to £43k so let’s give Mr Stewart the benefit of this as his final salary. In a generous final salary scheme (such as that of British Airways) a pension of one sixtieth of the final salary is paid for each year’s service) this would give Mr Stewart a starting pension of around £8,600. Even if this had been increased by an extremely generous 5% per annum it would stand today at around £21,700 (or about £1,800 per month, considerably unadjacent to the £4k that the late Mr Stewart jnr was said to have been embezzling each month). This of course also ignores the fact that Mr Stewart snr, the principle beneficiary had died and that most “normal” pension schemes inflict a heft reduction upon that event before paying a dependent beneficiary).
I cannot be bothered to look up the terms and conditions of pay and pensions for MEPs – it will upset me too greatly. The benevolence of the EU in paying short-term employees and their relatives enormous pensions is absolutely outrageous. MEPs have no power to introduce legislation but can only approve or veto that tabled by the Commission. To pay out £48k a year to a family of somebody who stopped doing that 20 years ago is simply scandalous.