The European Parliament is to create its own social networking website at a cost of £3.2 million to taxpayers.

Creating and running the new service will cost more than £4,000 for each Euro-MP over the next 18 months, even though many already belong to free and popular networking sites such as Facebook or Bebo.

Despite the use of taxpayers’ cash, much of MyParl.eu will not be visible to the public, with its networking “restricted to parliamentarians”, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

Only parliamentarians and “civil society”, Brussels-speak for officially sanctioned NGOs and trade associations, will be able to use the site for comment and debate. “Myparl.eu offers you a unique online political forum with a social networking tool, enabling you to engage with other parliamentarians across the EU,” said the pilot site launched in Brussels on Thursday.

Source: telegraph.co.uk