Monthly wages of 9,386.29 euros, a heated office in Brussels and Strasbourg (F), personal assistants, luxury company cars, business class flights, a respectable retirement pension, special conditions for medical treatment and a lot of political influence: whoever can get all of this stand for election to the EU Parliament (annual budget: two billion euros) in one of the 27 member states of the European Union and with a bit of luck be elected. Depending on the country, several tens of thousands of votes are sufficient.
The case of deposed parliamentary vice-president Eva Kaili (44) shows how corrupt things can sometimes be in the third largest parliamentary chamber in the world (behind the Chinese People’s Congress and the British upper house). She is said to have received 600,000 euros in bribes from Qatar and has been detained since Friday.
EU parliamentarians wanted to fool Zürcher Bank
But the Greek is by no means the only colorful figure in the 705-strong parliament who has a say in new EU laws, the EU budget and the members of the even more powerful EU Commission. For example, the German Rainer Wieland (65), since 2009 one of the 14 vice presidents of the parliament. The conservative politician has just had his parliamentary office decorated for €630,000 – including windows that can be tinted at the touch of a button.
Or the former French EU Member of Parliament Marine Le Pen (54). Until 2017, she spent almost 300,000 euros on an assistant who had never done parliamentary work. Even more brutal was the Czech Miroslav Ransdorf (1953-2016), who appeared in 2015 as a sitting EU Member of Parliament with forged documents in a bank in Zurich and wanted to defraud 350 million dollars. In retrospect, Ransdorf claimed it was all a misunderstanding because the Zurich bank employees “only understood Swiss German”.
The example of former FPÖ vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache (53) is telling. Since the release of the Ibiza video in 2017, this is considered the most corrupt figure in all of Austria. Two years later, however, it was enough for a place in the EU parliament: Strache was elected – with just over 33,000 votes – but never took up the mandate.
70,000 working days per year for travel
The structures on which the European Parliament is based are also problematic. The parliamentarians meet twelve times a year for four days in Strasbourg and six times a year for two days in Brussels. Years ago, a leaked document stated that EU parliamentarians and their assistants spend a total of 70,000 working days on the road each year. EU powerhouse France, however, is adamant that Strasbourg is the seat of parliament.
Travel in business class or first class coupe is covered by the EU taxpayer. In addition, there are 338 euros per day for hotel and restaurant per parliamentarian, then 4,778 euros per year for representation purposes (does not need to be documented more precisely), an average monthly retirement pension of more than 5,000 euros and 24,943 euros per month for assistant salaries.
Putin spokesperson’s daughter was a parliamentary assistant
The assistants do not necessarily have to work in Strasbourg or Brussels, but can also serve the parliamentarians from their home country. The only condition: they must not be close relatives of the politicians. A very fragile system: in 2019, for example, it was discovered that French MEP Aymeric Chauprade (53) had hired the daughter of Putin spokesman Dmitri Peskov (55) as an assistant.
The Maltese President of the EU Parliament Roberta Metsola (43) promised earlier this week that she would “shake up” the parliament. However, a new personality is likely to complicate this undertaking: in January, Italian Alessandro Chiocchetti (54) took over the powerful position of Secretary General of Parliament and became the head of some 8,000 parliamentary assistants. Only: Chiocchetti had earned his spurs as an employee of the Italian politician Marcello Dell’Utri (81), who was sentenced to several years in prison because of his mafia connections. Not ideal conditions for the necessary far-reaching reforms.