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I refer to Mathew Vella’s article ‘Sign-on, Sod-off – How Maltese MEPs can earn Lm40,000 yearly’ in MaltaToday 3 April. I would like to point out the following:
Subsistence Allowance
Since MEPs have to work in Brussels and Strasbourg it is only reasonable to expect that the European Parliament provides MEPs with funds for accommodation and subsistence. This allowance amounts to Eur 268 daily.
Readers may be surprised that at times especially in high season this may not be sufficient. There have been instances when the allowances do not even cover the hotel bills. Consequently your question as to whether additional expenditure is required for such items as language lessons and other travel is ‘yes.’
Office Allowance
We receive an office allowance of 3,785EUR. From this, as you pointed out correctly nearly one third is paid into a private pension scheme with a written undertaking to refund the same. In fact even if I hadn’t signed this undertaking I can assure you that setting up and the running
of six offices in Malta and Gozo absorb this allowance.
Secretarial Allowance
Although the allowance looks handsome at 14,856EUR, if one uses it with attention it is sufficient, but not extravagant. Nearly half of the allowance is utilised for personal assistance in Brussels and Strasbourg. When one is cognisant of costs one will understand the necessity of such a disbursement. For instance the monthly rent for an unfurnished accommodation absorbs no less then one third of the salary. My personnel and relevant duties, funded by the said allowance are listed hereunder:
Sharon Ellul Bonici - Political Consultant and Parliamentary Affairs in Brussels, Strasbourg and Malta.
Carol Ellul - Social and Administrative related duties in Malta
Nathalie Attard - Research, Public Relations and Media
Rita Law - Customer Care and Office Management - Malta
Frank Masini - Customer Care and Office Management -Gozo
Dr Elona Debono - EU legislation Research Officer
Since my allowance is received by an appointed service provider, Dr Ivan Sammut, who is assisted by an accountant, all payments are made directly to my personnel. The accounts are then audited, although this is not mandatory by European Parliament regulations. Every six months the service providers or the MEP have to forward statements.
Although such an infrastructure appears to be new in the context of Maltese politics, this is not the exactly the case from my personal experiences. Having served in the national parliament in Malta for five legislatures one of which as a minister and after two years service as an observer and member of the European parliament I am able to compare the different offices. In reality being an MEP is a full time occupation and the workload is not dissimilar to that which I had when I occupied the office of a minister. In fact the Executive in Malta has a service-infrastructure which is superior to that of MEPs. It is only the mechanism relating to funding that is different. Obviously the responsibilities of a minister and an MEP are different but no less onerous, but then when I was a minister I did not have the inconvenience of continuous travel and the distress of living apart from my family.
To this day my daughter finds it very difficult to sleep at night when I am away.
Airfare reimbursements
The airfare reimbursements are worked out in accordance with a formula representing an airline fare plus distance allowance. This was worked out by the European Parliament so as to take into account the fact that
MEPs have to travel from their country and back every week. It is up to the member of the European Parliament to choose the method of transportation and service. Some prefer to travel on economy class and save money. In reality when you deduct the cost of the ticket one usually ends up with a favourable balance, depending with the type of ticket purchased.
Salary
It has to be pointed out that the salaries received by MEPs are the same as members of Parliament amounting on average to Lm6,500 per annum.
This is also the case of other members of parliament elected from other countries. Maltese national and Euro parliamentarians are amongst the lowest paid in the 25 member states of the European Union. Although the economic situation in Malta is not conducive to an increase in salaries on the other hand it may interest your readers to compare our salaries with those of our colleagues. That is why one should appreciate the various allowances made available to members of the European Parliament so that they can perform their duties in a professional manner.
John Attard Montalto
Labour MEP
Brussels
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