Galery

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The Greek deputies receive more than 20,000 euro a month,  reads Ethnos newspaper in today's issue. The people’s representatives' compensations do not fall for the first time under the magnifying glass of the media, but this time the sum exceeds even the boldest expectations.

In fact, the disclosure is not the result of a journalistic investigation, but comes from the efforts of the examining judges to get information about the exact sum, which is received every month by the members of the Greek Parliament. The inquest started after judges and prosecutors had submitted complaints with the request to annul the cuts in their remuneration. Then, the competent court sent a letter to the Secretary of Parliament with the inquiry for detailed information about the sum received monthly by the deputies, in order to determine the salaries of the court workers on its basis. And this, because, according to the Constitution, "The deputies have the right to receive remuneration, equal to the total sum of all remunerations of the court workers".

The inquiry had been sent already in March, but to date the court still has not received an answer. Probably the reason for the silence of the Parliament is the difficulty in explaining that the total of "all remunerations" for each deputy exceeds the sum of 20,000 euro per month, or 700 euro per day.

According to the Parliament's budget, the deputy's salary amounts to 8,000 euro. The people’s representatives receive additionally on average about 1,100 euro per month for taking part in commissions, as the total expenses for attending the meetings are 2,875,000 euro. This sum, however, is not a constant number, because the deputies, who take part in the financial commission, for example, receive more money than the others, due to the more frequent meetings.

For taking part in each meeting of the commission, in which each deputy is a member, they receive 150 euro. As much again receive the participants in the summer sessions of the Parliamentary Plenum. In total, for the commissions and for the summer sessions, the deputies receive 1,250 euro per month.

Even more:

- According to the parliamentary budget for 2012, the total amount for insurances of the deputies in the National Health Insurance Fund and the family allowance amounts to 1,062,000, or 350 euro per deputy.

- About 1,000 euro per month is the cost to the state of the deputies' official cars. After the enclosure of the decision to replace them with other ones, of lesser horsepower and respectively the price of the leasing fell, the Athens deputies' cars with a 1.4 l engine cost to the budget 750 euro each per month. For deputies outside the capital city, are foreseen cars with 1.8 l engines, the expenses for which reach 1,200 euro per month.