"Generally speaking, yes, the €7,800 salary is less than half of what you get in your bank account every month, but there are certain expenses linked to it," Andrus Ansip told ERR. "Office expenses can't be seen as income, they just disappear."

At present, the basic salary of a member of the European parliament is €10,075.18, and after deducting EU taxes and insurance contributions, the total is €7,853.89, which is then subject to additional taxes in some countries, but not in Estonia.

MEP Jaak Madison said that this is more than enough for those who want to do the job and work hard to justify being elected. "Looking at the composition of the European Parliament, you can't say that 705 MEPs slaving away from dawn to dusk, sweating bullets for the interests of their constituents," he said.

Bonus without reporting

There are also bonuses in addition to basic salary. The general expenditure allowance of €4,950 per month is intended to cover expenses back in the home country. It comes with a set of rules, but there are no checks on compliance, Ansip explained.

"In principle, they are similar to the representation expenses paid in Estonia to the parliament or to the ministers. In the Riigikogu you have to account for how the money is spent, ministers do not have this accountability in Estonia and there is no accountability in the European Parliament. There is a prescribed use for it, and the general rule is that everything is used up and missed, and nobody tends to have very much left over," he said.

According to Ansip, this amount has probably been calculated in such a way that it should cover all necessary expenses and leave nothing for inappropriate use.

Madison said that while questions have been raised about whether the overhead allowance is always used according to the rules, parliament is not addressing the issue.

"So far, there has been a kind of political agreement or understanding among the major political groups, especially the European People's Party (EPP), the socialists and the liberals, to which most of the Estonian MEPs belong, that they don't want to push this issue," Madison said.

Both Madison and Ansip said that the overhead compensation is intended to cover bureaucratic costs, such as communications equipment, media subscriptions, and phone bills.

MEPs do not have to keep track of their own travel expenses either

Travel expenses are paid by the EU parliament's travel agency, not by the MEP.

Parliament pays for twice-weekly return flights from home to work, Madison said.

"For example, if a MEP says I want to fly from Tallinn to Brussels via Copenhagen, but it's, say, three times more expensive than flying via Riga, he or she would not be able to fly via Copenhagen because the parliament's travel agency says there's a plane going via Riga at about the same time for the same distance that's three times cheaper. They don't give you a direct number in advance of how much it might be, because the parliament itself books your ticket and sends you a confirmation by email. But they do keep an eye on it in the sense that it's within reason compared to other routes," he explained.

In addition, MEPs are allowed to incur other travel expenses not related to flying to their main place of work, such as attending a conference in a third country, up to a limit of €5,000. However, Madison said the bureaucracy involved was not worth the money and that he had not taken advantage of the opportunity.

Ansip pointed out that the European Parliament is very different from the European Commission in that a commissioner lives permanently in Brussels and goes on missions to other member states, including his or her home country.

"MEPs basically live in their own country and go to work in Strasbourg or Brussels during the working week," he said.

Free choice of accommodation in Brussels

This means that MEPs also receive a per diem allowance of €350 to cover their daily accommodation and food costs.

Ansip said that there are no restrictions on exactly how accommodation can be organized.

"While in Estonia there was a scandal about someone renting an apartment from a close relative [former justice minister Kalle Laanet - ed.], and people think that it would be the most fair and just thing to rent an apartment from a stranger instead, there is nothing like that in the European Parliament," Ansip said.

You can rent an apartment, stay in a hotel, live under a park bench somewhere, and put the money in your pocket or savings account. It's up to each MEP to decide.

Both Ansip and Madison acknowledge that it is probably always cheaper to stay in a hotel than to rent an apartment.

Madison gave the example of living in a hotel in Brussels before the pandemic broke out, as he spent a maximum of four nights there each month, plus a week in Strasbourg: "So it made more sense to stay in a hotel, since the amount is about the same as renting a small apartment in Brussels. But you don't have to worry about utilities or deposits."

According to Ansip, you can't rent an apartment in Brussels for less than €1,000, while staying in a hotel will probably cost about the same.

The biggest scandals concerning per diems have been cases where an MEP has lived in Belgium all the time, but at the same time accepted per diems intended only for people on mission, Ansip recalled.

MEPs must inform the parliament of their place of residence and travel expenses are reimbursed accordingly. The daily subsistence allowance is paid on the basis of a signature and can be given in Brussels or Strasbourg, in the offices.

Assistants must be able to fit within a six-month budget

There is also a separate amount for MEPs' staff, €28,696 per month.

All MEPs have access to the same amount, and it is not paid to MEPs, but a contract with the assistant is signed by parliament.

According to Ansip, MEPs usually hire two to four assistants. Their salaries are confidential.

Madison has also taken on trainees, notably young members of the EKRE, to give them political experience.

Remuneration also after the end of the term

At the end of their term of office, MEPs are entitled to a transitional allowance equal to their salary, payable for the number of months corresponding to the number of years they have been in office. This allowance is to be paid for a maximum of two years.

If a former MEP takes up a post in another parliament or the civil service, the salary received there is deducted from the transitional allowance.

From the age of 63, former MEPs receive a pension based on the number of years they served in Parliament, but not exceeding 70 percent of their salary.

Total cost of the European Parliament is over €1 billion

The necessity or non-necessity of fees and allowances could be reduced to a question of the necessity of the whole parliament, Madison said.

"After all, it's no secret that the European Parliament is often a kind of old people's home, where ex-presidents and prime ministers are sent to a dignified retirement with a golden handshake. So it's sort of a question of how much value the European Parliament actually adds, given its total cost in terms of the budget. Last year, if I remember correctly, it cost more than €1.3 billion to run the whole European Parliament," he said.

Madison acknowledged that there are certainly people who think that the money spent on the European Parliament is justified and very necessary and that democracy is expensive.

"Personally, I would not mind if there was no European parliament," Madison said. According to him, member states are currently quite successful at discussing various concerns with the European Commission directly and reaching a consensus.

"Through the arguments, some sort of balance comes about with the European Commission, and then again European parliament members jump in from the sidelines and say we don't like this, that, or the other thing. In political terms, the European parliament frequently causes more harm than benefit in the European Union," he said.

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