The post you are reporting:
Courtesy of the Times and reminds me why I voted to leave.
Nigel Farage has earned up to €790,000 in outside income on top of his salary of more than €100,000 a year, putting him sixth in a controversial list of the highest earning MEPs. Transparency International, a campaign group, has published a top ten rich list of MEPs earning more form lucrative outside jobs than their, famously generous, “gravy train” pay and perks. Mr Farage, 54, has declared extra income in a range of between €590,000 to €790,000 in broadcast contracts since July 2014 under annual European Parliament declarations. Last year he declared himself to be “skint”. His exact earnings are unknown as MEPs are required to declare outside earnings in broad bands. “Mr Farage has declared his income in the financial declaration like every other MEP. Everybody is welcome to look at it,” said his spokesman.
Yesterday the former Ukip leader vowed to return to frontline British politics to oppose Theresa May’s Brexit strategy.
Guy Verhofstadt, 65, the parliament’s Federalist Brexit negotiator and an avowed political enemy to Ukip, is number three of Transparency’s rich list. The former Belgian prime minister races vintage British racing cars and owns a Tuscan vineyard. He earned between €920,000 to €1.45 million, most of it from being a board member of Sofina, a Belgian investment company. His spokesman said: “He has always declared his mandates openly and publicly. He also stresses that he is not lobbying for companies and also believes that indeed there should be no lobbying by MEPs.”
The top earner is Renato Soru, an Italian Socialist who is on the board of Tiscali, the telecommunications company. He pocketed up to €1.6 million. The study shows that 104 MEPs declared earnings of more than €100,000 each over the past four years on top of their salaries as full-time members of the European Parliament. Many of the declarations contain one-word descriptions of activities such as “consultant”, “freelancer” or “lawyer”.
Daniel Freund, at Transparency International EU, said: “Large outside incomes pose a serious risk of conflicts of interest. Whose interests do these MEPs really represent? That of citizens or the interests of those that pay their side jobs?” MEPs earn €102,000 per year, paid at a low 22 per cent tax rate for European Union officials, compared with £67,000 for MPs in Westminster. They are also paid staff allowances and other entitlements that are estimated to be worth up to €400,000 a year each.
As well as staff allowances, MEPs are able to earn more than €90,000 a year in “daily subsistence” and “general expenditure” (GEA) without having to provide any receipts or proof of expenditure.
Last week the parliament decided to continue paying MEPs €40 million a year in GEA without receipts or scrutiny.
