The ambassadors of the Member States to the European Union were invited, on Wednesday 13 March in Brussels, to assess how the Council of the EU could participate in the future EU Ethics Body.
By Tuesday evening, seven EU institutions and bodies (European Commission, European Parliament, Court of Justice of the EU, European Central Bank, European Court of Auditors, European Committee of the Regions, European Economic and Social Committee) had given their approval to the draft Interinstitutional Agreement presented (see EUROPE 13369/9).
The European Council had made it clear that it would not be a party to this agreement. And, on behalf of the EU Council, the Belgian Presidency had indicated that it should consult Member States on the way forward.
The Member States have always argued that their representatives are subject first and foremost to national rules on ethics and integrity in public life, even in the context of their activities at European level. Only the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs would be subject to the standards of the future EU Ethics Body, in his capacity as President of the EU ‘Foreign Affairs’ Council.
According to the Belgian authorities, the agreement presented would give the EU Council a secondary role within the future body. But other participants in the negotiations, notably in the European Parliament, fear that the EU Council will have a right of veto over the drafting and monitoring of compliance with ethical standards, even though these will not apply to the Member States.
This is why the Belgian Presidency wants to sound out the latter on three options: accepting the agreement presented, participating as an observer like the Court of Justice, or postponing the EU Council’s participation in the EU Ethics Body.
The areas in which the new body would be responsible for drawing up common standards are as follows: - professional activities carried out in parallel with a political mandate and post-mandate; - declarations of financial interests and assets; - hospitality and travel rules; - transparency in meetings with stakeholders.
The five independent experts, who will sit on the EU Ethics Body alongside representatives of the participating EU institutions and bodies, will be able to assess any type of standardised declaration, but only at the request of a participating institution or body and where the ethics committees of that institution or body so provide.
At the start-up stage of the future body, the independent experts would be chosen from among those who have already sat on the ethics body of EU institutions or bodies, as is the case at the European Commission or the European Court of Auditors.
Once the Council of the EU’s response on its involvement with the EU Ethics Body is known, the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament’s political groups (CoP) will have to vote on the interinstitutional Agreement, potentially as early as Thursday 14 March. The European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs will then be responsible for presenting a specific report with a view to approving the Interinstitutional Agreement at the April plenary session. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)