Attard-Montalto gives partial disclosure of MEP salary
Matthew Vella Labour MEP John Attard Montalto yesterday presented MaltaToday with a partial breakdown of his earnings in the last five years, the first Maltese MEP to offer a glimpse into his lucrative earnings.
He announced he would submit his yearly MEPs accounts for audit, and would publish them in MaltaToday – two weeks before publishing them on his website. He is the only Labour MEP to have made this pledge, while Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil was the first Maltese MEP to successfully push through a party motion that will bind Nationalist MEPs to audit their accounts and publish them on their website.
“I’m ready, along with the support of one of my colleagues, to present a parliamentary motion to bind all MEPs to publicise their earnings. I think we are obliged to show what we earn, and we are in a position to set an example,” Attard Montalto told MaltaToday.
Extrapolations from the MEP’s partial disclosure shows Malta’s MEPs can earn up to €100,000 in annual salaries, apart from having travel, offices and assistants’ salaries fully subsidised.
According to the information supplied by Attard-Montalto, over the past five years he was paid an average annual salary – equivalent to that of a Maltese MP – of some €17,500. In total, he accumulated €87,850 over the past five years. Under the 2009 reforms, all MEPs will now receive the same salary of €7,000 every month.
However, he did not indicate the total of daily allowances he received, which have ranged from €262 per sitting in 2004, to €298 in 2008. To qualify for these allowances, an MEP must sign the register for a committee, delegation or group meeting; and in the case of the plenary, sign-in and vote in at least 50% of the roll-call votes.
MEPs usually can earn up to an additional €60,000 annually by claiming most of these allowances.
Attard Montalto gave no totals for his taxi usage, subsidized by the EP at €50 per trip. “I have not been able to acquire the total amount of taxis but I hardly used the service to and from the airport as I do not usually travel on Sunday, when the parliamentary service is not available. This also applies for travel to the parliament as I almost always use parliamentary services.
“On the other hand, I usually use a taxi service (which is reimbursed) from parliament to the hotel when I used to reside in Sheraton Place Rogier, since I usually prefer to continue working late whilst the service closes down at 9:30pm. Regarding the use of taxis to other destinations I doubt whether I have made use of this service more than three to four times a year.”
The MEP said most MEPs choose to rent or buy apartments and use the daily allowance to pay the mortgage. “In my case I have chosen to live in hotels. I was able to get favourable rates because I undertook to stay for minimum terms.”
Attard-Montalto said he paid €130-140 per night to stay the Brussels’ Sheraton, and then €169 per night since March 2009 to stay in the Radisson SAS. He paid €179 to stay in the Holiday Inn Strasbourg.
He added that the rate does not include breakfast. “I do not normally eat lunch, perhaps a small snack and I almost always eat at the hotel, usually in my room. The cost depends on what one orders but a three-course meal consisting of pasta, steak or fish, fruit and a carafe equivalent to two glasses of local wine amounts to €60.”
Travel MEPs are also given a lump-sum, equivalent to the highest economy fare, together with a “distance allowance” for travelling. Distance allowance is based on the distance in km from Malta International Airport to Brussels/Strasbourg – which stands at 4314/3532 km correspondingly for a return trip. Payments are only made upon the presentation of the original boarding passes by MEPs.
Attard-Montalto said MEPs had an agreement with Air Malta for a club-class seat, “provided that we book in advance” at the rate of €544, taxes and charges included. He only paid more than this amount on three occasions.
Attard-Montalto said he claimed a distance allowance from Brussels that ranged from €510 per return flight in 2004, up to €559 in 2008. Considering that MEPs make at least one return trip a week during the greater part of the year, except in summer, Malta’s MEPs can earn anything up to €21,200 every year just for a “distance allowance” – apart from all travel costs being subsidized.
“As can be established the lump-sum is higher than the actual cost, mostly due to the distance allowance,” Attard-Montalto said.
But in the next legislature, payment will be made on the actual cost of the ticket. Attard-Montalto also claimed €3,736 for travel abroad to attend conferences and seminars in 2005 (the full entitlement), €3,555 in 2006 (from a maximum of €3,826), just €920 in 2007 (from a maximum of €3,895), and €2,575 out of a maximum entitlement of €4,000 in 2008.
He made no claims on the computer and language learning funds available to MEPs to enhance computer literacy and language skills.
Pension cash Attard-Montalto is also a member of the European Parliament’s extremely lucrative pension fund.
Each monthly contribution is directly deducted from the office allowance paid to MEPs by the Parliament, and the EP also matches their contribution by twice the amount. The cash goes into a pension fund registered in Luxembourg.
Attard-Montalto said he requested to pay his pension contribution separately from his salary but the EP turned down the request due to administrative procedures.
He operated five offices in Malta and Gozo over the past decade, which are now down to three. He received a monthly allowance since 2004 that ranged from €3,700 to €4,202 to pay for rent, maintenance, telecommunications, cleaning, and transport.
Attard-Montalto rightly described the pension fund as a “very good opportunity” – undoubtedly given the generous payout it guarantees MEPs well after the end of their parliamentary career.
“Because of the recent financial crisis Parliament itself has had to guarantee the fund and change certain conditions. The age of entitlement has been raised and the procedure whereby members can take the opportunity of a lump-sum has been abolished. Technically the portion which is paid by the MEP and which used to be deducted from the allowance known as the office expenditure had to be reimbursed by the Member for use in office expenditure to be used in accordance with the allowance above-referred to as office expenditure.”
Employees Attard-Montalto received a monthly allowance ranging from €12,576 to €17,540 between 2004-2009 to pay staff salaries. His staff compliment in 2008 consisted of 11 personnel, comprising a full-time assistant and consultant in Brussels, eight assistants in Malta, and a service provider to ensure compliance of employees and consultants.
He only provided a breakdown of income and expenditure for the months of January, July and December 2008 – for example, in January, he received €15,496 which he used to pay salaries and consultancies (€13,743); €1,602 in social security and tax; €732 for staff travel.
Visitors’ programme The MEP also made use of a €535 per person allowance paid by the EP to invite 100 visitors every year to Brussels. This is usually used to fund flights and hotels for constituents to tour the European Parliament and pay them a trip to Brussels for three nights.
“The programme we prepare for the group consists of information visits to EU institutions as well as a visit outside Brussels, usually to Bruges. On most occasions the visitors are activists who have either helped me in my political campaign and/or delegates selected by their respective committees. In addition I have taken the opportunity to offer band clubs, sports clubs etc. to select visitors.”
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He is the only Labour MEP to have made this pledge, while Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil was the first Maltese MEP to successfully push through a party motion that will bind Nationalist MEPs to audit their accounts and publish them on their website.
