On Thursday 25 April, the European Parliament officially approved (301 votes in favour, 216 against, 23 abstentions) the creation of the future European Ethics Body and its participation in it, thereby endorsing the position of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (see EUROPE 13397/29).
The European Body should be established in time for the next legislative cycle and will be responsible for developing common standards of ethics and integrity in public life, which the eight participating EU institutions and bodies, but not the European Council, will incorporate into their internal rules. Five independent experts will be responsible for assessing any type of declaration on request and making recommendations to the parties involved. But the ethics body will not be able to impose sanctions.
The Interinstitutional Agreement setting up the European Body was approved by a progressive majority comprising the S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and The Left groups. These groups preferred to take the first step, even if they would have liked it to be more ambitious from the outset.
Compared to the European Commission’s initial proposal, “we’ve managed to gain significant improvements”, such as the possibility for the body “to look into individual cases”, noted Daniel Freund (Greens/EFA, German), Parliament’s rapporteur. Admittedly, “the compromise won’t satisfy everyone”, he added, finding it “incomprehensible” that the European Council was not a member of the body. But, in his view, it was difficult to explain to voters that MEPs didn’t want to take this step forward.
Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, German) pointed out that, even with good ethical rules, “self-regulation doesn’t work”. Gilles Boyer (Renew Europe, French) believes that “it’s always a step forward for democracy when an institution entrusts an external body with an oversight role”. “We’re the worst judges of ourselves”, he remarked, convinced that the next legislature will serve to strengthen the future body’s skills.
However, the EPP, ECR and ID groups voted against creating the new ethics body.
On behalf of the Christian Democrats, Germany’s Sven Simon reiterated his disapproval of the interinstitutional negotiations’ outcome, which he described as a “betrayal of parliamentarianism”. MEPs will have moral standards imposed on them, while these standards will not be imposed on the European Council or the Council of the EU, he criticised. Virginie Joron (ID, French) felt that the European Body, whose secretariat will be located within the Commission, “won’t be independent”. “Self-assessment, confidential and non-binding opinions... ! The manoeuvre is obvious”, she said.
Ms Bischoff and Nikolaj Villumsen (The Left, Danish) asked the EPP: “What are you afraid of? What are you trying to hide?”
On Wednesday, the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) gave the Interinstitutional Agreement the green light. The EU Council will be a full member of the future body, developing common standards which will not, however, apply to the ministers of the Member States relative to their actions at EU level, but only to the High Representative of the Union in his capacity as President of the Foreign Affairs Council. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)