Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/576901
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 27 SEPTEMBER 2015 26 Letters MaltaToday, 25 September 2005 Brussels refuses access to MEP accounts The secretary-general of the European Parliament, Julian Priestley, has written to Malta- Today with a refusal for the dis- closure of the personal accounts of Malta's five MEPs. The newspaper will be submit- ting a confirmatory application asking the general secretariat in Luxembourg to reconsider its position. MaltaToday has also asked all five MEPs to present their statements of account for their first year in Brussels, and disclose all items of financial expenditure for their office which earns them well over Lm40,000, making them amongst the highest-paid Mal- tese individuals today. Priestley said the accounts for Malta MEPs cannot be disclosed on the grounds of data protection and the Com- mission regulation on access to Parliament documents. According to the latter, access can be refused to documents where disclo- sure "would undermine the protection of … privacy and the integrity of the individual, in particular in accordance with Community legislation regarding the protection of personal data." That means any information in reference to an MEP's economic status, as a third party, cannot be disclosed by the institutions. "The personal data concerned may only be processed for 'speci- fied, explicit and legitimate pur- poses and not further processed in a way incompatible with those purposes… In view of these considerations your application must be denied on the grounds that disclosure of the document would infringe the private inter- ests of a third party…." With a daily subsistence allow- ance of €268 (Lm113), Malta's MEPs will earn over Lm18,000 this year for signing in the general register for each of their 162 days of active presence in the European Parliament, where business generally takes place between Monday and Thursday. In order to claim this allowance, MEPs will have to sign on be- fore 10pm on any of the 162 working days through- out 2005. They are further estimated to be earning an extra €1,000 a week (Lm429) in the form of a distance allowance, over and above their reimbursed travel expenses. Speaking to MaltaToday in January, the European Parlia- ment's media director José Liberato had said MEPs are refunded a flat-rate sum to cover the cost of an unrestricted economy-class return air ticket, an allowance for the distance from the point of departure to Brussels or Strasbourg, and the cost of travel to and from the airport of departure. Maltese MEPs, Liberato had said, are paid €1,542 for each return air trip between Valletta and Brussels, which included €522.50 for the plane ticket, €40 for travel to and from the airport and €475 for the distance component. With some 41 active weeks in the Parliament this year, that means an extra €41,000 (Lm17,589) for Maltese MEPs, who are estimated to earn Lm429 every week to fly up to Brussels. Their overall income is topped up by their parliamentarians' salary, equivalent to that of a Maltese MP, which is just Lm6,761 a year (€15,834). Just before their summer re- cess, MEPs approved a report by Italian MEP Guiseppe Gargani that sealed years of controversy about the disproportionate dis- tribution of MEP salaries and over-generous benefits of the Brussels gravy train. The new statute now offers all MEPs a standard €7,000 (Lm3,000) a month, paid by the EU and not member states. The statute has to be approved by all EU governments and will be put into force by 2009. Travel expenses will also change, where now MEPs will have to present air tickets and receive only the price actually paid. Closing off Schengen borders I found it rather bizarre to read that the former parliamentary secretary for the elderly Franco Mercieca appeal for the Euro- pean council to lift the Schengen agreement. I would have expected this proposal if Malta was inun- dated with displaced people. The contrary is true. Malta has been one of the luckier countries, and the least we can do is offer our solidarity. I have the funny feeling that Mercieca is simply trying to appeal to the xenophobia of the Maltese who continue to believe that foreign people who are either Arab or black offer a very serious threat to our livelihood and jobs. Robert Borg Marsascala Ruckus in Ponsomby Street Every single evening until the early hours in Ponsomby street in Gzira a group of young foreign men gather at the door of a supermarket and park their cars in the middle of the street. Apart from the menacing looks, they have taken to drinking beer and other alcoholic drinks on the kerb. I would like to appeal to the Gzira local council and the police com- missioner Michael Cassar to take immediate action. Erika Cassar Msida Machinations at Vienna airport I was intrigued to read your feature article about the machi- nations at Vienna airport. It revealed to what extent foreign companies act to rout out com- petition. It is also an indictment on the former MIA CEO Julian Jaeger. And it comes as a concern considering that the Austrian company is an important player at Malta International Airport. My question is very simple: were the events that took place in Vienna replicated at Malta's airport? I would not be too sur- prised if they were, though I have no evidence of this. Reginald Caruana Birkirkara Julian Jaeger Franco Mercieca