It's hardly surprising that there's massive fraud among EU parliamentarians. Why shouldn't they steal? Is there a higher loyalty that's going to stop them? It's certainly not going to be the European public, since there is no such thing. The basic point of the EU is that it's a ruling-class union that gives people like MEPs job tenure and perks and lets them run things as they want without having to answer to anyone. So if one job perk is stealing on average $245,000/year, who's to complain?