MEPs meeting in plenary session, on Monday 13 February in the evening, debated EU funding for NGOs involved in the alleged Qatari bribery scandal of current and former members of the European Parliament.
In the EPP Group, it is felt that money flows should be made public. “This does not mean that it has to be in a public list, but that it has to be available to auditors and controllers”, said Monika Hohlmeier (EPP, German).
Furthermore, her group believes that the expenditure of funded NGOs should be better controlled and that respect for the duty of democracy and European values should be a sine qua non for access to EU funds.
“We expect the Commission to monitor this systematically”, she added.
For others, like Udo Bullmann (S&D, German), it should be “even more radical”. “It is not only the NGOs that have received money: all those who receive money from us are in the same boat and must therefore explain themselves and have their practices checked, not only in Parliament committees, but all the way to the top of the institutions”, he insisted.
For the Renew Europe Group, beyond NGOs, an affair such as Qatargate should also make us question certain organisations and associations - sometimes religious - that benefit from European funds while challenging “the European way of life”.
For the Greens/EFA Group, the debate emphasised the need to set up a European ethics body. The subject has been added to the agenda of Parliament’s plenary session and an emergency resolution will be put to the vote on Thursday 16 February in Strasbourg (see other news).
Finally, for The Left, Manon Aubry (French) said that the Parliament corruption scandal and the NGOs involved should not be used to “distract attention” from the EPP’s opposition to “any reform project” aimed at increasing transparency. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)