Europe Transparent ( nl, Europa Transparant) was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The party's founder,

Paul van Buitenen Paul van Buitenen (; born 28 May 1957) is a retired Dutch politician of the Europe Transparent Party who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2009. He was an assistant-auditor in the European Commission's Financial Control ...

, announced its establishment on 8 April 2004. In the 2004 election to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

the party gained two seats, after a campaign that cost no more than €4,000. Van Buitenen and the number two on the list,

Els de Groen Elly de Groen-Kouwenhoven (;''Groen'' in isolation: . born 23 December 1949 in The Hague as Elly Kouwenhoven, and now generally known as Els de Groen) is a Dutch author and politician, who served as a Member of the European Parliament 2004–2009. ...

, who has written about

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

scandals in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

, joined the

European Greens–European Free Alliance European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

party group as independent members. It did not participate anymore since the 2004 election European elections The party claimed to be non-ideological: they aimed to fight for more open European government, against

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

, corruption and favouring of friends. Because the pursuit of this goal was their primary occupation, they participated only to a limited extent in the normal system of debates, reports, meetings, etc. Their ultimate goal was to be able to disband themselves when they had made the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

transparent.

European Election results

References

External links

Official website
Green political parties in the Netherlands Anti-corruption parties Political parties established in 2004 Political parties disestablished in 2008 *Main 2004 establishments in the Netherlands 2008 disestablishments in the Netherlands Defunct political parties in the Netherlands {{green-party-stub