Please do not call us

Alterio Spinelli
Originally uploaded by 2ourallies.

I have been working on an article lately that is about the European Union. I needed to call a member of the European Parliament today. I strolled through the recently renewed website of the Parliament, went to the inidividual sites of the MEPs with one purpose: searching for a phone number. No luck. Finally I found the Europe Direct number. They stated that you can call for free from all member states. It did not work.

I went to Google and wrote ´european parliament telephone number´. I found a BBC article on the new website with the following quote:

"But one curious feature of the old website is reproduced in the new one - you still do not get MEPs' phone numbers, only their faxes.

Here is a secret they do not publicise. All MEPs' fax numbers, in their Brussels offices, begin +322 284 9***; their telephone numbers are identical, except for that 9 after the 284, which must be changed into a 5."

I understand that you do not want every single citizen calling you but this is relatively near to absurd.