On Wednesday 12 July, despite opposition from the EPP group, the European Parliament adopted a resolution tabled by the S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and The Left groups recommending that the future European Ethics Body be empowered to investigate alleged individual cases and, in the event of a proven breach, to make recommendations to the EU institution or body where the person concerned carries out their activities (365 votes in favour, 270 against, 20 abstentions).
Several amendments adopted in plenary modify the draft resolution tabled on Tuesday (see EUROPE 13220/17). According to MEPs, the European Committee should be able to investigate “on its own initiative” allegations of breaches of ethics rules “by current or former MEPs or members of staff” and “conduct investigations, on the spot and on the basis of documents, using information it has collected or received from third parties”.
Speaking on behalf of the S&D group, Germany’s Gabriele Bischoff criticised the attitude of the EPP group, which, during the negotiations, “has persistently tried to water down ambition in the Parliament’s position (...) only to end up not signing the resolution”. “We reject the idea of a European ethics body in name only. (...) However, by leaving the European institutions to police themselves, by not giving this body real powers of investigation, the EU would be failing in its duty”, Gilles Boyer (Renew Europe, French) said in a press release.
‘Qatargate’. Approved in plenary, several amendments from the EPP group point the finger at the role of “vector of foreign interference” allegedly played by NGOs such as Fight Impunity in the ‘Qatargate’ scandal of alleged corruption of MEPs by third countries.
In particular, the European Parliament is calling for an “urgent revision of the current rules with the aim of increasing the transparency and accountability of NGOs in their interactions with MEPs” to include “solid standards of transparency and access to the institutions, applicable to entities listed in the transparency register, including NGOs”. It recommends “a complete financial examination of these entities” before they are entered in the European transparency register.
Noting that revolving door also applies to NGOs, MEPs also called for “closer monitoring (...) of potential conflicts of interest in this area”.
However, the European Parliament rejected other amendments from the EPP group calling on the Commission to present “a proposal for a regulation on NGOs” in order to: - improve the transparency and accountability of NGOs in their dealings with the EU institutions, particularly when these organisations receive EU funding; - set reporting obligations relating to their sources of funding and financial flows.
See the European Parliament resolution: https://aeur.eu/f/811 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)