Not all MEPs have participated equally within the potential bonanza. Transparency Worldwide discovered that MEPs on the political proper and heart have been extra more likely to take money, and earn extra, than these on the left. (High outdoors earner Uspaskich isn’t aligned with any political group — since being kicked out of Renew in 2021 for making feedback the liberal group deemed homophobic.)
MEPs raking within the money embody Geoffroy Didier, a French MEP with the conservative European Folks’s Celebration. He makes €115,200 a 12 months working for a regulation agency, CARLARA, which boasts workplaces in Paris and Brussels. The agency’s specialties, in accordance with its web site, embody the life sciences and chemical compounds sectors, litigation associated to EU regulation and help to “EU public authorities earlier than and after rules.”
Didier didn’t reply to questions on how he avoids conflicts associated to his legislative duties, which incorporates membership on the European Parliament’s Committee on Authorized Affairs and substitute membership of the Committee on the Inside Market and Shopper Safety.
Socialist and Democrat MEP Marek Belka, a former prime minister and finance minister of Poland, rakes in additional than €21,000 yearly giving speeches. Board memberships spherical out the remainder of his €105,418 in additional revenue. They embody the Polish department of the Vienna Insurance coverage Group, which is registered to foyer the establishments.
In an e mail, Belka acknowledged there could possibly be some overlap with the insurance coverage sector and his work on the European Parliament’s Committee on Financial and Financial Affairs. But Belka advises VIG solely on funds and administration, not lobbying, he stated, noting a “very strict inner code of conduct” to keep away from conflicts, corresponding to eschewing rapporteur roles and voting solely the S&D occasion line on insurance coverage information.
“In terms of potential conflicts between my aspect jobs and my work in Parliament, I make it possible for this doesn’t occur,” he stated.
