The European Parliament has approved by a large majority a new salary system for its members.
As from the next parliamentary legislature, starting in mid-2009, Maltese MEPs will start receiving a monthly salary of €7,000 (Lm3,043), an increase of 540 per cent on their present salary.
All four Maltese MEPs present for the parliamentary session voted in favour of the resolution allowing for this change. Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil was not present. A spokesman for Dr Busuttil told The Times he had to be in Malta on urgent business.
The discussion over the new members' statute has been going on for years. EP sources told The Times the main aim of the deal is to have a common salary for all MEPs irrespective of their country of origin and thus stop the present system which created many discrepancies, especially following enlargement.
At present MEPs are paid at the same rate as their fellow MPs back home. This has resulted in huge differences, with Italian MEPs paid €12,000 monthly whilst their Latvian counterparts receiving just €1,000 a month. Maltese MEPs are paid €1,295 a month.
Apart from a common salary, the new system also includes a revamp of the present allowances system related to travel. As from 2009, travel reimbursements will be compensated only according to the actual costs and not with lump cash hand-outs as is currently the case. At the moment, the deputies get a flat rate refund of up to €971 (Lm422) per trip for their travel between different working places, plus an extra travel allowance of €3,736 (Lm1,624) a year for work-related journeys throughout the year.
However, while MEPs will get less for their journeys, they will still keep their daily presence allowance of €268 (Lm116), plus the money for running their office of up to €14,865 (Lm6,463) a month.
The new arrangements will also mean less burden on Malta's Treasury as the new salaries will now start being paid from the EU kitty.
MEPs will be subject to a 25 per cent European tax and member states can also choose to ask their MEPs to pay into their coffers the difference in tax they would have paid had they been receiving their salary in their home country. So with their pay level subject to 35 per cent tax in Malta, Maltese MEPs may have to start paying an additional 10 per cent.
According to the new agreement, member states are still allowed to retain the present payment system if they choose to do so. It provides for a transitional period during which each member state may continue to apply, for the members elected by its citizens, rules different to the provisions of the new statute. This will allow MEPs to be placed at least on an equal footing with members of their respective national parliaments. This provisional transitional period can be used till 2019.
EP sources said this transitional period was inserted to accommodate Italian and Austrian MEPs who are the only ones currently receiving a higher salary than the €7,000 a month agreed in the new statute. This way, the Italian and Austrian MEPs can still retain their higher salaries if their governments so decide.