In a “declaration of members’ private interests”, members of the European Parliament must disclose their private income from the last three years. There were no major surprises with the EU top candidates of the SPÖ, FPÖ, ÖVP and NEOS – but there were with the Greens’ top candidate Lena Schilling.
The youngest member of the European Parliament, for example, stated that she earned around 300 euros for her dance lessons. This was an “average amount based on the number of hours given,” the statement said. As a book author, Schilling earned 2,848 euros annually.
What is particularly strange is that the activist and Green Party politician received 400 euros from the TV channel “Puls4” for each participation in a television discussion on the channel. She also received 400 euros per assignment for her column in the “Kronen Zeitung”.
By comparison: SPÖ candidate Andreas Schieder stated that he “only” received the gross salary of an MEP of around 10,000 euros. FPÖ politician Harald Vilimsky did the same, but also received an additional 1,000 euros gross per month for “Media Consulting – FPOE-Vienna”.
NEOS top candidate Helmut Brandstätter received his salary as a member of the National Council and stated that he also earned around 5,000 euros gross per month as an author and for media training.
Reinhold Lopatka, the ÖVP’s top candidate for the EU, like Brandstätter, received a member’s salary and 500 euros in expenses from the Austrian Parliament for his work as Vice President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.