MEPs to disclose use of funds

The Nationalist and Labour parties are aiming to adopt new transparency rules governing the way Maltese MEPs spend their hefty allowances, as both parties gear up for the European Parliament elections in June.

The proposed rules are meant to counter the prevailing perception in Europe that MEPs siphon off allowances into their personal bank accounts.

Under the proposals, which are in gestation within both parties, Maltese Euro-parliamentarians will make public how much money they receive for travel, hotel accommodation and attendance at meetings as well as what they pay to third parties from EP funds.

In answer to questions, the leaders of both the Nationalist and Labour MEP delegations in Brussels agreed that more transparency should be introduced before the coming elections, which will coincide with the introduction of a new statute for all MEPs. The statute - which incidentally will include a chunky 540 per cent increase in the salary of Maltese MEPs - will revise the way allowances are granted.

So far, the Nationalist Party seems to be more advanced in its plans, according to what MEPs Simon Busuttil and Louis Grech have told The Times.

Dr Busuttil has already presented his party with a set of proposed rules which are expected to be discussed and adopted by the PN executive in the coming days.

"The rules govern the transparency that will be required of PN MEPs in relation to any funds placed at their disposal by the EP. They set very high standards of transparency and go beyond existing EP rules. I did this because we have nothing to hide and therefore we have no problem with disclosing how we use our EP money," Dr Busuttil said.

His proposals, seen by The Times, go into great detail about each item of allowance allocated to the MEPs and would require them to declare all the allowances they receive.

Nationalist MEPs would also be required to prepare audited accounts on a regular basis and to declare any office that they may hold in a non-governmental organisation, even if not against remuneration.

Dr Busuttil said he is proposing that all PN candidates should be required to accept these rules before actually becoming candidates and that elected MEPs will have to prominently display all the required information on their websites so the public and journalists can immediately blow the whistle if this is not done, naming and shaming the MEP involved.

Labour is preparing to launch similar rules although when asked, its head of delegation, Louis Grech, did not go into details.

"The PL will introduce a code of ethics governing the conduct of MEPs as from the coming legislature," Mr Grech said.

Asked how the new rules will oblige MEPs to divulge information about the use of their allowances to the public, Mr Grech said that "this is being addressed in the code of conduct document".

On the naming of their staff, including part-timers and consultants paid from EU funds, Mr Grech said that "publication of personal details of staff members has to take into consideration the rights relating to privacy and data protection of the individuals concerned".

The new EP statute will, as from next June, give MEPs a standard salary, capped at a handsome €7,000 a month, scrapping the present system through which parliamentarians are paid the same salary as that of MPs at the national level. In Malta's case, this stands at €1,295 a month.

The new regime, however, also introduces stricter controls on how MEPs should use and account for their allowances, which currently stand at some €300,000 annually.

These changes were made in reply to several sleaze allegations involving MEPs abusing their allowances to top up their salaries. According to a recent internal EP report leaked in Brussels, some MEPs pocketed hundreds of thousands of euros in profits from a single five-year term.

The report showed that these MEPs, who haven't been named, claimed expenses for assistants on whom no records exist. They allegedly awarded these assistants bonuses of up to one-and-a-half times their annual salary and diverted public money into front companies.