Malta’s six European Parliament members are obliged by their respective local political parties to publish audited accounts of their expense claims, yet five of them rejected a move to subject all 751 MEPs’ general expenses claims to obligatory annual reporting.

The European Parliament, which has a €1.75 billion annual budget, has long been criticised for its lack of transparency.

Apart from their gross annual salary of €96,000, all MEPs are given an annual €274,548 staff allowance, a €51,840 annual general expenditure allowance, a €304 subsistence allowance and reimbursement of travel expenses to their home country.

PN MEP Roberta Metsola provides audited accounts on her website showing how this money is spent, while the same information can be accessed through PN MEP David Casa’s Facebook page.

PN MEP Therese Comodini Cachia was unable to provide her full audited accounts by the deadline set by this paper as she was travelling back from the EPP conference in Madrid. She instead provided a breakdown of her expenses claims copied from the original document.

PL MEP Marlene Mizzi’s expense claims popped up on her website two days after The Malta Independent on Sunday sent her an email requesting her audited accounts.

Her assistant responded to this paper’s request on the day they were uploaded, saying: “All information requested is to be found on Hon. Marlene Mizzi’s website.”

Despite trying to pull a fast one, the expenses claims provided by Ms Mizzi were the most up-to-date of all six MEPs, although they were the claims submitted to the European Parliament rather than independently audited accounts.

Labour MEP Miriam Dalli responded to our request by explaining that it takes three months for her accountant and auditor to conclude and verify the financial accounts.

She said the process is now in its final stages and will be published at the beginning of November.

Labour head of delegation Alfred Sant offered a prickly response to this paper’s request for his audited accounts, and took particular exception to being given a deadline to do so for the purpose of this article.

“Thanks your e mail. I will supply the information that needs to be made publicly available but in my own time not in yours. I'm not used to obeying commands or ultimata,” was his initial response.

Just over an hour later, a slightly more conciliatory follow-up email was received.

“Many thanks for your e mail. I have no problem with making publicly available my GEA a/cs and will be doing so shortly in my own time not your’s.I never comply with ultimata, no matter how expressed nor for what reason”

Majority of Maltese MEPs vote down increased transparency call

At the beginning of the year, the European Parliament approved a report including a clause saying the Parliament “stressed the need for greater transparency as regards the general spending allowances for members.”

An amendment to the report removed a demand for more transparency on MEPs €4,320 monthly general expenditure allowance which is used to cover day-to-day office expenses such as rent, stationary and telephone calls.

One of the deleted clauses expressed concern that MEPs “do not have to account for the way they have used the allowance and that for members who wish to do so, verification of their accounts by the Internal Auditor of Parliament is not possible.”

The clause had also called for “the introduction of obligatory annual reporting by the members of their expenditures paid out of the general expenditure allowance, or, failing that, for at least opening a procedure for verification of the Members’ accounts on a voluntary basis.”

The majority of MEPs (83 per cent) voted in favour of amending the report by removing these clauses.

Votewatch Europe showed that MEPs David Casa, Therese Comodini Cachia, Miriam Dalli, Roberta Metsola and Marlene Mizzi all voted in favour of the amended version of the report removing the obligatory annual reporting of general expenses.

Labour MEP Alfred Sant chose to abstain in the vote, meaning that he ‘rebelled’ against the voting wishes of the Socialist and Democrats Party in the EP, of which he forms part of.

The other five MEPs voted in line with the wishes of their respective European political groupings, although their vote jars with the commitment to expenses transparency of both the Nationalist Party and the Labour Party.