Salary, Allowances and Expenses
Transparency is really important to me. I’m your representative, so I think you deserve to know what I get paid for doing my job.
The key points:
• I give away half of my salary, and half of my daily living allowance.
• I travel standard class, and use bicycles whenever possible.
Salary
An MEP gets paid about 17% more than an MP. An MEP’s basic salary is set at 38.5% of the basic salary of a judge at the European Court of Justice. This translates into ~£7750 (€8758) per month or ~£93,005 (€105,096) per year. For comparison, an MP in the UK Parliament gets £79,468, an NHS consultant gets £77,913+, and a senior council officer (non-politician) gets £83,331+.
I pay tax and national insurance contributions in both Europe (€1933) and the UK (~£1000). So I receive approx. £5040 per month net salary. I choose to give half of this away to environmental and social justice causes, which means I keep the equivalent of £30k per year.
Daily living allowance
MEPs also get a daily living allowance to cover living expenses (accommodation, food etc) for each day they are at work in Brussels or Strasbourg. This is set at EUR 320 per day (~£283). Again, I choose to give half of this away to causes including organisations tackling poverty and homelessness.
I publish a list of the donations that I make on my Facebook page.
Office expenses
MEPs receive a General Expenditure Allowance to cover office expenses, outreach activities and so on. This is EUR 4513 (~£3994) per month. I am committed to reporting publicly on how I spend the General Expenditure Allowance, in line with the guidance of the Greens/EFA Group – which is more strict than the rules of the Parliament as a whole. Updates will be published on this website. Read more about the Greens/EFA Group policy on the General Expenditure Allowance here.
Staff allowance
MEPs get a staff allowance of up to EUR 24,943 (~£22,073) per month to employ staff to support us in our work. Note that MEPs don’t receive any of this money ourselves, but it is available to pay staff if we want to employ them.
This allowance means I have been able to create several new jobs in the region. I employ seven people here in the West Midlands (total 3.5 FTE posts) to help me with constituency work. I have three part-time Regional Liaison Officers covering three main areas:
• Black Country and Staffordshire
• Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire
• Birmingham, Solihull, Coventry and Warwickshire
I also have a full time Media Officer, two part-time Outreach Officers, and a Constituency Coordinator who holds it all together!
In Brussels I employ three Parliamentary Assistants to support my committee work with the INTA (international trade) and DEVE (development) committees, and also help with outreach, for example by welcoming groups of visitors from the West Midlands.
Travel
MEPs’ travel expenses are paid for work-related trips. The Parliament’s default option is unfortunately to book business class travel. My own default option is to travel standard class, and to book my own travel in order to get the lowest-cost option. (If you ever spot me in the Eurostar business class lounge, it’s because I get to use it for free as I travel so frequently, not because I’m travelling business class!) I use bicycles, walk, and use public transport wherever possible. I always travel by train to Brussels and Strasbourg, and I have signed the #flightfree2020 pledge. I am also campaigning for Parliament to change the rules on travel to incentivise more sustainable and cheaper travel options.
Diary
I’m committed to reporting transparently on what I am doing on your behalf. This means that I publish my diary, showing what I am doing, where and when.
I also publish details of all meetings that I have with groups, organisation and firms which could be considered lobbyists, in line with the Greens/EFA policy on transparency.
Please note that for safety reasons I do not publish precise location details of meetings / events in advance.
See the online record here on lobbyCal.
You can also see my meetings history on my Europarl page.
Donations
I’ve made a commitment to give away half of my salary and half of the ‘daily living allowance’ that I get from the European Parliament – because I am generously paid, don’t need it all myself, and want to use the money to support others working for positive social change.
I invited constituents to make suggestions for causes I should support.
I reported my donations publicly on my Facebook page each month. My donations for July-December 2019 totalled £24,097.
There is more information about MEPs’ salary and allowances on the European Parliament website:
Citizens’ Enquiries (Ask EP)
The EU impacts our daily lives in many ways. Have you ever wanted to put a question to the European Parliament about its work? The European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) operates and question and answer service, called Ask EP, providing information about the European Parliament, its activities, powers and organisation. Some of the questions it has answered recently include, “What is the European Union doing about climate change?”, “What is the EU doing to combat cybercrime?”, and, “What is the ‘Free Interrail pass for Europeans’ EU initiative?”
Click here to visit the Citizens’ Enquiries (Ask EP) website.