In a report published on Thursday 12 December, the association Transparency International details in depth the “most glaring” issue in parliamentary ethics: the prevention and management of conflicts of interest, which, according to their conclusions, is far from being properly addressed.
The report analyses the side activity income declarations of the new European Parliament: MEPs have declared more parallel activities this time than they did at the end of the previous mandate. 74% of them, i.e. three out of four, have some sort of side activity, collectively estimated at an annual income of €6.3 million.
While this is legal, the NGO says there is a clear conflict of interest, given that many MEPs sit on committees that legislate on policy affecting the industry they themselves may represent (in parallel).
The association gives the example of an MEP who is a member of the Committee on the Environment, who at the same time earns €5,000 a year as a member of the sustainable development advisory board of one of Europe’s largest electricity companies, which is listed in the EU’s transparency register.
According to the NGO’s calculations, the 10 MEPs declaring the most side income are almost exclusively from groups on the right of the political spectrum. The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) come out on top, with an estimated total of €55,000 per year from side activities.
Transparency International condemns the failure of the process to reform Parliament’s rules of procedure, which are “rampant with loopholes”.
To see the report: https://aeur.eu/f/es0 (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)