Categories of income

The ‘Code of conduct for Members of the European Parliament with respect to financial interests and conflicts of interest’ was agreed at the end of 2011 and entered into force on January 1st 2012.

One of the implementation tools used for the code is laid out in Article 4, and consists of a Declaration of Financial Interests (DoFI) that each MEP must submit. This DoFI encompasses a number of different elements, from the MEP’s occupation during the three-year period before taking office, to his/her membership of boards or committees. For each activity declared, the MEP has to indicate the related category of income received. Four categories of income are set up:

Income category 1: EUR 500 to EUR 1000 a month;

Income category 2: EUR 1001 to EUR 5000 a month;

Income category 3: EUR 5001 to EUR 10000 a month;

Income category 4: more than EUR 10000 a month.

Any other income members receive in respect of each item declared shall be calculated on an annual basis, divided by twelve and placed in one of the above categories. If the amount of the regular or other income is below the threshold of category 1, i.e. 500 EUR per month, or if the declared occupation, membership, activity, holding or partnership is not remunerated, a category does not need to be indicated.

This article is part of the MEPedia project of Spinwatch.

Resources

• FoEE, Transparency in the European Parliament: Analysis of the Declarations of Financial Interest of Members of the European Parliament – July 2012, accessed 25 September 2012.