Three PN MEPs have failed to hand over invoices for their office space rental at Dar Centrali as part of an EU-wide project looking into the way MEPs spend their General Expenditure Allowance.

The GEA is paid in a €4,342 tax-free lump sum amount each month.

The collaboration among journalists from 28 member states found at least 41 MEPs who pay rent to national political parties or even to their own personal account.

According to information handed over by local MEPs, PN MEPs pay over €3,500 to rent their offices from the party's media arm Media.Link.

Services such as internet, cable TV, security, water and electricity are also included in the payments, the MEPs said.

Transparency International said the project’s findings showed the urgent need for the European Parliament to put in place robust financial control measures regarding MEPs’ used of the General Expenditure Allowance (GEA).

The GEA is meant for office expenses related to their work as a MEP, such as rental costs for constituency office space, phone bills, or office supplies. The spending under this budget line amounts to just under €40 million annually, cumulatively for all MEPs.

A series of investigations found that in 249 cases MEPs either said they have no offices, refused to reveal their addresses, or the locations could not otherwise be tracked.

There is no transparency around the GEA, no financial controls and no requirement of receipts by the European Parliament to prevent the potential misuse of this allowance.

From left: PN MEPs Therese Comodini Cachia, Roberta Metsola and David Casa.

PN MEPs David Casa, Roberta Metsola and Therese Cachia Comodini all confirmed that they rented office space from Media.Link.

Dr Metsola said she pays Media.Link €1,000 per month for a 42 square metre office, Mr Casa said he pays €1,156 for a 56 square metre office, and Dr Cachia Commodini said she pays €1,440 for a 72.6 square metre office.

All three PN MEPs failed to comply with a request to hand over the invoices for their rental agreements.

They instead pointed The Times of Malta to the annual audited accounts published on their websites.

The three MEPs said the publication of these audited accounts went well beyond what was legally required to be disclosed, and the audits always found full compliance with European Parliament rules.

On Labour side, MEP Miriam Dalli handed over invoices showing she rents a 75 square metre office for €630 per month in Zebbug.

Marlene Mizzi said she uses an 80 square metre Valletta office rent-free from her daughter.

Alfred Sant refused to reply to this paper's questions on the basis that The Times of Malta failed to publish an internal inquiry into allegations involving its managing director.

Dr Sant instead pointed this paper to his audited expense accounts, which does not include a specific figure to office rental.

As the EU parliament does not audit the use of these expense payments, there is no documentation available for how the funding is used.

And, according to the research carried out for the project, neither the existence of MEPs’ national offices nor certain conditions of their funding are monitored by the parliament.

 “Renting an office is one of the expenditures covered by the General Expenditure Allowance. This is a lump sum that – as a principle – is not controlled by the European Parliament,” EU Parliament spokesperson Marjory Van Den Broeke explained."

An MEP may indeed rent an office from a national political party, provided certain conditions are respected and the rent is at market price, in order to prevent an indirect financing of the national party”, she said.

“Moreover, the office should be used solely for the exercise of the European mandate. As such, the office should be separate from other offices and clearly marked as one for European Parliament work. It can also not be used by other people or for other purposes. Those are all the conditions that have to be respected,” she added.

However, the parliament has no way of knowing if and how these conditions are being respected, Van Den Broeke admitted: “The fact that it’s a lump sum means that MEPs do not need to hand in any invoices or other bills. This also means that the European Parliament administration does not have any information on any offices used by MEPs.”