Brussels, 07/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament wants to make a clean break from its reputation of corruption and political scandals. Three MEPs, all of them former government ministers, were trapped last month by journalists working for The Sunday Times in the UK, pretending to be lobbyists. Slovenia's Zoran Thaler (S&D) and Austria's Ernst Strasser (EPP) have already stepped down over the issue, and the EP has entered proceedings to remove the parliamentary immunity of the third MEP involved, Romania's Adrian Severin (S&D). The three MEPs agreed to lodge amendments to draft legislation on banking in return for payments of up to €100,000.
The conference of presidents of the European Parliament's political parties decided on Thursday 7 April to set up a working group to produce a document on how current lobby group rules should be changed and a document on tighter rules for MEPs. The idea is to assess the current rules (in the EP's terms of procedure) to see what is lacking, what can be added and whether that should take the form of a code of conduct, explained an EP source, adding that the group would also be looking at whether there should be an ethics committee and/or advisory committee for MEPs for when they do not know what to do exactly in specific cases.
The working group will have a broad mandate and will be chaired by the EP president, Jerzy Buzek. It will start work next week and will unveil its proposals before the summer break.
The MEPs disagree about the methods used by The Sunday Times but all agree on the basic issues. Co-President of the Greens/EFA Group, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, said that when MEPs are prepared to accept payment for tabling amendments, that is a form of corruption. Anyone who is prepared to accept payment in return for certain services should not be allowed to remain in the European Parliament, commented the head of the socialists at the EP, Martin Schulz.
The issue became controversial this week during a debate at the plenary session in Strasbourg. Voting on the draft EP budget for 2012, most MEPs rejected an amendment stipulating that MEPs should start travelling economy class rather than business on short-haul flights (of up to four hours). This would have saved between €15 million and €20 million a year, according to the MEPs behind the idea (see separate article).
The idea of a code of conduct is to introduce tighter regulations on the number of corporate boards and other jobs that any one MEP may hold - a common practice despite the high monthly pre-tax salary for an MEP of €7.956.87 in 2011, to which there is an additional €20,000 or so to cover professional expenses, assistants' salary, travel costs and accommodation.
In a press release, EPACA (the European Public Affairs Consultancies' Association) backs the idea of reforming the EP rules to make it more transparent and ethical and also backs the idea of a compulsory register of lobby groups. (L.C./transl.fl)