The leaders of the European Parliament’s political groups and its President, Roberta Metsola (EPP, Maltese), met at the Conference of Presidents on Wednesday 8 February to discuss proposals for the European Parliament’s internal rules and regulations.
The meeting, which was ongoing at the time of the article going to press, is a continuation of the work carried out at the European Parliament since the revelation of the alleged corruption case within the institution by Qatar last December (see EUROPE 13091/10).
Discussions between the political groups were to focus on several issues, starting with access to the Parliament for former MEPs. On this point, the European Parliament Presidency’s proposals provide for the abolition of the permanent parliamentary pass for former MEPs.
Those who visit the European Parliament to carry out lobbying activities would be given an identifiable badge. The text also proposes that former MEPs should have to wait six months before becoming interest representatives to the institution.
In addition, discussions focused on the transparency register, whose services would be responsible for monitoring lobbying entities and NGOs to judge whether or not they are in compliance with the institution’s rules.
The issue of NGOs should be discussed at length. The EPP was arguing before the meeting that an NGO funded by another NGO that is not listed in the register should be obliged to disclose all information about the funding NGO. A public blacklist should be documented to identify NGOs suspected of fraud, harassment or links to criminal activities.
The EPP also wanted the European Commission to publish all contracts with NGOs in which the Commission outsources policy implementation or drafting of legislation and stated its willingness to legislate on NGOs in order to increase transparency. In this sense, the EPP insisted, the results of the ongoing study by the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) on the financing of NGOs should be taken into account.
“On NGOs, there will be debates, because not all groups necessarily agree with us, especially among the Liberals and Socialists. Some people think it is a restriction of freedoms”, a source close to the case told EUROPE.
For the Renew Europe group, the focus should be on the inter-institutional ethics body working on corruption cases. “This is the cornerstone of everything. We will ask to add this topic to the agenda of the next plenary session”, a member of the group told EUROPE. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)