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Economist Ulrike M. Malmendier

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Julia Steinigeweg / DER SPIEGEL

High expenses from economist Ulrike Malmendier, who lives in California, lead to differences with the coalition's budget politicians.

According to internal documents, the Advisory Council's travel expenses in 2023 amounted to around 300,000 euros, with Malmendier alone accounting for 200,000 euros.

On average, airfare costs around 13,000 euros per trip to Germany.

The economist, who teaches at Berkeley, was appointed to the committee by the federal government in 2022.

The Bundestag's Budget Committee has now set guidelines for the travel costs of business people: an upper limit of 100,000 euros should apply per member per year.

In a letter to the committee, Monika Schnitzer, head of the Advisory Council, warned against expanding hybrid meetings with Malmendier joining in.

Schnitzer said we would not be able to adequately meet our legal obligation to assess the overall economic situation and make it easier for all bodies responsible for economic policy and the public to make judgments if the resources are not adequately adjusted.

The same also applies to participation in appointments, committees and commissions.

This is expected and gladly done “beyond the actual work on the annual report”.

"As cheap as possible"

In response to a SPIEGEL inquiry, the council explained that members' trips would be booked "on a long-term basis" and "as cheaply as possible": "All travel expense reports are also checked by the Federal Office of Administration."

On average, the Advisory Council has a total of 14 meetings with 37 meeting days per year.

In addition, there are usually external appointments such as hearings, meetings with the Federal Chancellor or press conferences.

Some of the meetings are hybrid or held via video conference - this will probably affect six meeting dates this year.

The council recently made headlines because of internal differences.

The background was the appointment of council member Veronika Grimm to the supervisory board of Siemens Energy.

Council chief Schnitzer and the other economists warned of conflicts of interest and demanded that Grimm give up one of the two posts.

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