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Being a member of the European Parliament pays pretty well. Being a member of the European Parliament who hawks mineral water as protection from Covid pays even better.
Lithuanian lawmaker Viktor Uspaskich earns €3 million annually from a company called Edvervita, according to public disclosures. Primarily a real estate venture, Edvervita is also the main shareholder in a mineral water company, whose product Uspaskich has claimed can protect against being infected with the virus that causes Covid-19, prompting a probe by authorities, according to the Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT.
Uspaskich, who did not reply to a request for comment, has more recently faced accusations of bankrolling a disinformation portal and, as of last month, come under investigation for allegedly hiring fake assistants to bilk the European Parliament out of €500,000.
The non-aligned member’s windfall is by far the most lucrative side job held by an MEP. But fresh filings by the European lawmakers — prompted by a post-Qatargate requirement to submit more detailed information — show that outside employment is widespread.
One in four MEPs listed a paid activity aside from their salary as lawmakers — a figure that likely understates the level of outside work because lawmakers are no longer required to disclose some activities paying less than €5,000 a year, according to Transparency International EU, which published an analysis of the filings on Monday.
Unsubstantiated health claims aside, it’s all legal as long as MEPs don’t engage in direct lobbying on behalf of their other employers.
In the wake of the Qatargate cash-for-favors scandal, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola declared an end to “business as usual” and ushered in new rules that require MEPs to provide more details about any outside income, theoretically making it easier to spot conflicts of interest.
The reforms left plenty of loopholes, however. The new rules no longer ask MEPs to report roles paying less than €5,000 a year, and lawmakers have repeatedly voted down measures that would bar them from holding positions with organizations registered to lobby in the EU’s transparency database.
“After all the scandals, only MEPs think that having side jobs with companies that lobby the institutions is ethically acceptable,” said Nicholas Aiossa, Transparency International EU’s director.
Not all MEPs have participated equally in the potential bonanza. Transparency International found that MEPs on the political right and center were more likely to take cash, and earn more, than those on the left. (Top outside earner Uspaskich isn’t aligned with any political group — since being kicked out of Renew in 2021 for making comments the liberal group deemed homophobic.)
MEPs raking in the cash include Geoffroy Didier, a French MEP with the conservative European People’s Party. He makes €115,200 a year working for a law firm, CARLARA, which boasts offices in Paris and Brussels. The firm’s specialties, according to its website, include the life sciences and chemicals sectors, litigation related to EU regulation and assistance to “EU public authorities before and after regulations.”
Didier did not respond to questions about how he avoids conflicts related to his legislative duties, which includes membership on the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs and substitute membership of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection.
Socialist and Democrat MEP Marek Belka, a former prime minister and finance minister of Poland, rakes in more than €21,000 annually giving speeches. Board memberships round out the rest of his €105,418 in extra income. They include the Polish branch of the Vienna Insurance Group, which is registered to lobby the institutions.
In an email, Belka acknowledged there could be some overlap with the insurance sector and his work on the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. Yet Belka advises VIG only on finances and management, not lobbying, he said, noting a “very strict internal code of conduct” to avoid conflicts, such as eschewing rapporteur roles and voting only the S&D party line on insurance files.
“When it comes to potential conflicts between my side jobs and my work in Parliament, I make sure that this does not happen,” he said.
