On Thursday 4 May, the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Foreign Interference (ING2) discussed the 425 amendments to the draft report on the strengthening of integrity in the European Parliament (see EUROPE 13153/21). These suggestions are in line with the text by Vladimír Bilčík (EPP, Slovak) and Nathalie Loiseau (Renew Europe, French), aiming primarily to strengthen the transparency of the European Parliament’s relations with foreign representatives and the “security culture” within the institution.
A political text
While the report will be voted on in the Parliament’s committee in June and in the European Parliament’s plenary in July, the rapporteurs hope to be able to start some of the proposed reforms before the 2024 elections.
While the text comes in the wake of ‘Qatargate’, it is primarily political in nature. “We’re not here to investigate a particular case, we are to provide a medium to long term political response to a set of events”, Mr Bilčík said. He therefore called for support for an ambitious text that complements the proposals of the President, Roberta Metsola (see EUROPE 13164/26), and is likely to attract a large majority.
Divergent positions
However, some issues are still under discussion. Heidi Hautala (Greens/EFA, Finnish) and Clare Daly (The Left, Irish) lamented the lack of trust in NGOs, arguing that all interest representatives should be subject to the same transparency requirements.
Beata Szydło (ECR, Polish) said that preventing MEPs from expressing their own views while on a mission abroad violates their freedom of mandate. The rapporteurs, for their part, defended the need to distinguish between a head of delegation, who undertakes to defend the European Parliament’s positions, and other members.
Finally, while positions on the possibility of having a secondary job during a mandate diverge, Ms Loiseau admitted that, although it contributes to the richness of the Parliament, the rules regarding transparency and declaring the absence of conflicts of interest must be strengthened.
The draft report: https://aeur.eu/f/64n
And the amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/6p1 ; https://aeur.eu/f/6p2 (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)