ELDR Bureau: watching, and waiting, and hoping...

The members of the Bureau of the European Liberal Democrats (ELDR) are gathering in Brussels today. I know this in part because I follow the Treasurer's Twitter feed (@RomanJakic), and partly because, rather surprisingly, I'm on the agenda for their meeting tomorrow.

For tomorrow, the nominees for places on the ELDR Financial Scrutiny Committee are considered, a process which remains something of a mystery to me. I know that there are five nominees - a Croat, a German, a Swedish-speaking Finn, an Italian from Catalonia... and me. What I don't know is what the criteria for appointment are, or how many places there are to be filled.

But what does the Financial Scrutiny Committee do? As best as I can tell, it is ELDR's equivalent of the Liberal Democrat Audit and Compliance Board, ensuring compliance with Belgian and European law, as well as with the funding regulations of the European Parliament - European political parties receive 'state' funding for certain activities.

When it was announced in Palermo that the Bureau would be reconstituting the Committee, I realised immediately that this offered an opportunity to do something a bit different. And, after all, I have twenty-five years of tax compliance under my belt, I'm used to organisational structures and I am highly numerate. So, I threw my hat into the ring to be the Liberal Democrat nominee... only to discover that I was the only one.

So, time to wait, keeping my fingers duly crossed...