On Wednesday 5 July, the S&D Group in the European Parliament unveiled the recommendations of the three experts – Professor Jean-Pierre Garitte, former MEP Richard Corbett and Spanish criminal law expert Silvina Bacigalupo – it had commissioned with a view to assessing the European rules applicable to MEPs regarding ethics and integrity in European public life.
The three experts note that the “Qatargate” scandal of alleged corruption of MEPs by third countries represents a challenge that has so far been “underestimated”, insofar as the rules governing lobbying were predominantly drawn up keeping private economic interests within the EU in mind. Given its relatively low level of sophistication, ‘Qatarargate’ is “likely to be the tip of the iceberg”, they note.
According to them, the existing rules that govern ethics depend on 27 documents at very different levels of the legal hierarchy. It is therefore recommended that this situation be rationalised by asking Parliament to collate these provisions in a single directory (‘compendium’) that can be easily located.
In the opinion of the experts, the shortcomings that have been observed stem mainly from weaknesses in monitoring compliance with existing rules and, where appropriate, the penalties that are imposed. The experts note that there is little compliance with the rules designed to avoid conflicts of interest when appointing a rapporteur, and that the rules governing declarations of financial interest remain too lax. Nor does OLAF have access to MEPs’ offices or computers when it is carrying out a specific investigation.
In their recommendations, the experts recommend that the President of the European Parliament publishes a list of graduated sanctions that would apply in the event of a proven breach of the rules of ethics, such as silence on having meetings with interest groups that are registered in the European register.
Other measures relate to the application of transparency rules with regard to MEPs’ staff and the introduction of a rotation system for staff that work on sensitive dossiers.
Finally, if the European Parliament does not make provision for it in the current reform of its rules of procedure (see EUROPE 13217/13), the S&D group could prohibit its members from being remunerated by an organisation that is listed in the European Transparency Register during the exercise of their political mandate.
See the report by the three experts: https://aeur.eu/f/7z2 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)