In its adoption, on Tuesday 13 December, of the majority of the draft report by Richard Corbett (S&D, UK) reforming its own regulation, the European Parliament will prohibit its members from holding paid lobbyist positions from mid-January 2017.
"The measure prevents MEPs from being paid to lobby European institutions and, in particular, to influence the votes within Parliament. However, it does not prohibit all secondary employment", the rapporteur told the press. In order to go further in restricting professional activities outside Parliament, the legal advice we were given states that the European legislation would have to be changed, he said.
During their term in office, MEPs will only be able to meet lobbyists included on the European register. If they carry out any lobbying activities after the end of their term in office, they will no longer have a right of free access to the buildings of the European Parliament.
Furthermore, the MEPs will have to present more detailed statements of financial interests, which will be updated and checked more regularly. For instance, MEPs will have to declare their annual extra-parliamentary income to the nearest €10,000, said Pascal Durand (Greens/EFA, France). He expressed his hopes that in the framework of the subsequent reform, the European Parliament would be able to establish rules against revolving-door career moves.
The question of the legislative footprint, whereby MEPs list their meetings with interest groups held in order to draft reports, is included in the Parliament regulation, but will be the subject of a voluntary procedure on the part of the MEPs.
The vote on the Presidency of the Commission will remain anonymous
Compared to the draft report adopted by the parliamentary committee (see EUROPE 11663), Parliament rejected the amendment of its internal rules (rule 117) that would have brought in roll call voting to appoint the President of the Commission. 364 MEPs supported this amendment, but a absolute majority of 376 was required to adopt it. "It must be borne in mind that the voting traditions vary greatly between countries. This is why the groups gave the MEPs voting freedom", an expert source on this dossier observed.
In another change made to the initial draft report, the provisions on the composition of the parliamentary committees (which will be a matter for the political groups in the future: Ed) and of the national delegations will apply from the next legislative term, to begin in 2019.
Sanctions for racist comments tightened up
The sanctions for MEPs using defamatory, racist or xenophobic language will be tightened up. These will range from a simple reprimand to a suspension of between two and 30 days of daily allowances, without prejudice to voting rights, right the way up to a double suspension for repeat offences, together with a ban on representing Parliament externally, in missions abroad or in the framework of inter-institutional negotiations.
In order to increase the efficiency and transparency of its work, the Parliament has adopted a number of rules to limit the abuse of certain tools made available to the MEPs. In particular, the number of written questions will be limited to 20 in any three consecutive months. Corbett referred to a small number of MEPs in a race to table parliamentary questions. Apart from the costs this involves, it takes longer to get answers to the real questions, he added.
The other new elements added to the Parliament's regulation include the following: - 10% of MEPs will be able to ask the plenary to confirm the launch of inter-institutional negotiations on any given dossier; - the creation of committees of investigation without the prior validation of the Conference of the Presidents of the political groups: - an obligation for the Commission to debate the withdrawal of proposals in the competent committee; - rationalisation with three voting thresholds (5%, 10% or 20% of MEPs) for each type of procedure (article 168a). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion with Pascal Hansens)