On Tuesday 13 June, apart from the EPP Group, the S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and The Left Groups strongly criticised the recent proposal for an interinstitutional agreement to set up a European body whose main task would be to develop common standards on ethics and integrity in public life (see EUROPE 13197/14).
For Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, German), the Commission’s proposal aims to create “a kind of coordination forum” that introduces “no binding rules” for the European institutions. Gilles Boyer (Renew Europe, French) described a proposal that was “far from our ambitions”, which consisted of providing the European body with “independent members” and powers of investigation, verification and sanction that would apply “to European elected representatives and senior officials”.
“We can have the best rules in the world, but if they’re not enforced we are not improving anything!”, said Daniel Freund (Greens/EFA, German), convinced that “self-policing simply does not work”. On behalf of The Left Group, France’s Manon Aubry described the proposed European Ethics Body as “an empty shell with a ridiculous budget”.
Only Sven Simon (EPP, German) welcomed the “fairly balanced” text on the table. He also advocated tougher internal rules to ensure compliance with ethical rules.
Further to the right of the political spectrum, Geert Bourgeois (ECR, Belgian) called for more resources for the European Parliament’s current internal advisory committee. “An interinstitutional body is not acceptable in terms of the separation of powers”, he said. Jean-Paul Garraud (ID, French), for his part, saw the Commission’s proposal as “a diversionary tactic” when “it’s a whole system that needs to be changed”.
Referring to the powers of the future European Ethics Body as envisaged by the Commission, the Vice-President responsible for Values, Věra Jourová, reiterated that the EU institution “cannot propose something that is not provided for in the Treaties”, namely to give the body powers of investigation and sanction. She also pointed out that other EU institutions and bodies, which would become members of the future body, do not want it to encroach on their powers to monitor compliance with the rules. She also referred to OLAF’s request that Parliament authorise it to investigate its own members, in accordance with a 2019 interinstitutional agreement (see EUROPE 13195/23).
In July, MEPs are expected to adopt a resolution aimed at reaffirming Parliament’s 2021 position, which wants to give the future body the power to investigate and sanction specific cases (see EUROPE 12792/9). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)