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Matthew Vella
Malta’s five MEPs have written to MaltaToday to justify the potential Lm40,000 they can make at the European Parliament, following a report in this newspaper on the generous allowances given to MEPs to conduct their daily business in Brussels and Strasbourg (see also letters to the Editor,
page 25).
Nationalist MEPs Simon Busuttil and David Casa expressed disdain at having their potential earnings publicised, claiming that their integrity had been called into question.
The report on MEPs’ earnings, showing how Maltese MEPs can amass up to Lm40,000 in travel allowances and daily subsistence allowances, also brought reactions from former Labour MP John Attard-Montalto, lamenting that constant travel and working away from his family takes its toll on the industrious MEPs’ lives.
Although Maltese MEPs are paid a Lm6,500 salary reflecting the same emolument for MPs in Malta, Brussels awards lucrative subsistence and travel allowances that notches their annual income to some Lm40,000 a year. An ‘all expenses paid’ package of some Lm100,000 enables MEP to employ assistants and run their offices.
Attard-Montalto told MaltaToday that the meagre salary Maltese MEPs receive is the reason why readers should appreciate the various allowances awarded to MEPs so that they “can perform their duties professionally.”
The Socialist MEP admitted that euro-parliamentarians end up with favourable balances on the cost of their weekly airfares, due to a formula devised by the European Parliament which awards MEPs an extra allowance for distance covered between their country of origin and the Parliament.
Maltese MEPs are estimated to earn an extra EUR4,000 (Lm1,736) a month on their reimbursements.
Attard-Montalto’s socialist colleagues, Joseph Muscat and Louis Grech expressed reservations about the allowances system in the European Parliament, saying they both supported a new statute for members which would better regulate its financing.
“It is evident that the current system is inherently conducive to anomalous situations and therefore the system needs to be improved upon,” Louis Grech said.
Joseph Muscat however said that MaltaToday’s article contained “misconceptions”. Referring to the yearly EUR5,000 allowance for language lessons, Muscat said refunds are only given against documented expenditure. “You seem to imply that this constitutes income for members… any unused funds are forfeited.
Attard-Montalto has justified MEPs’ subsistence allowance, the EUR268 received for signing the attendance register for the 154 committee meetings which will be held this year, saying the yearly Lm17,000 (EUR40,348) is at times, “especially in the high season”, not sufficient.
“There have been instances when the allowances do not even cover hotel bills,” Attard-Montalto said.
Louis Grech agrees. The ‘attendance’ allowance has to cover expenses such as rent or hotel accommodation, meals, laundry and “other daily incidental expenses. It would not be correct therefore to conclude that this allowance would sufficiently cover every form of expenditure, some of which is reimbursed on an ‘actual procedure’ basis anyway.”
A former minister, Attard-Montalto said the workload of a full-time MEP is similar to that of a minister: “Obviously the responsibilities are different but no less onerous,” the MEP said, who remarked that his new role carried the “inconvenience” of continuous travel and the distress of living apart from his family. “To this day my daughter finds it very difficult to sleep at night when I am away.”
In a joint reply, the EPP members Simon Busuttil and David Casa took great umbrage at having their annual earning potential publicised.
They claimed the report attacked their integrity by suggesting they had abused the system by claiming allowances for doing nothing. The article correctly reported that MEPs can claim their subsistence allowance without attending committee meetings, a practice that already exists amongst certain MEPs and which was revealed by former socialist MEP Hans-Peter Martin, who today sits with the Ind-Dem group of eurosceptic MEPs.
“This is an unfounded allegation which we refute. We are committed to carry out our duties in good faith and to the best of our abilities. We hope that the Maltese public can appreciate that we working hard to represent them well,” the two MEPs said, morosely adding their regret at “such a low opinion of your representatives in the European Parliament.”
But the two MEPs also said they were not advocates of the current system of allowances, saying they have joined other MEPs in calling for its reform to improve its transparency “in order to dispel doubts such as those raised in your article.”
Busuttil and Casa said the reform is being delayed by national governments in the Council of Ministers and not by the European Parliament.
The two MEPs claimed MaltaToday’s article was misinformed and contained “grossly incorrect conclusions” on their earnings. All figures published by this newspaper were confirmed by the European Parliament’s own documentation on MEP salaries and allowances: “Your assumption seems to be that we pocket allowances instead of using them for their real purpose. This assumption is both false and cynical.”
matthew@newsworksltd.com
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