Project Green CEO Steve Ellul is on an €81,000 pay package, according to information tabled in parliament this week.

Ellul’s three-year contract shows the former banker is on a basic salary of €55,000, which is then topped up with additional allowances.

These include a €10,000 project allowance, a €10,000 expense allowance, as well as a €1,800 mobile and internet allowance.

Further benefits include a car allowance and the possibility of a 15% performance bonus.

Ellul’s full-time engagement as CEO on a 40-hour week basis started in January 2023 and expires in 2026. The contract was tabled in parliament in response to a parliamentary question by PN MP Mark Anthony Sammut.

The Project Green CEO is widely tipped to be a Labour candidate in next year’s European Parliament elections.

Project Green is tasked with implementing the government’s ambitious urban greening project.

Prime Minister Robert Abela has pledged to spend €700 million over seven years to create green spaces in urban environments.

The government has already identified 16 public spaces that will be regenerated into open, green spaces within the next two years.

The sites are located all across Malta and Gozo. Some of them are existent, run-down gardens that will be given a facelift, others are derelict sites that are currently used as dumping sites, while others are pieces of land within development zones that will be transformed into open, public spaces.

All 16 gardens will be fully open to the public and managed by local councils, NGOs and residents.

Parks Malta, an agency that was only set up in 2020 to manage national parks and other public spaces, was ingested into the new agency earlier this year.