The European Parliament joins the new EU Ethical Standards Authority / Article

The European Union’s Single Ethical Standards Authority has been created so that the main authorities follow common rules. It was prompted by a number of scandals, the loudest of which is related to the alleged bribery of members of the European Parliament to defend the interests of Qatar and Morocco. On the other hand, some other MEPs are suspected of having received money from Russia or China.

In addition, the European Commission is accused of being too lenient with their ex-employees going into private business.

In a debate in parliament, EU Environment Commissioner Virginijs Sinkiewicz gave some examples of where the new ethics body could be useful.

“Areas where such standards would be necessary concern issues such as officials’ declarations, receiving gifts, trips, as well as other benefits, meetings with representatives of various interest groups and their publication, as well as activities of former MPs after the end of their term of office,” Sinkevič explained.

It is planned that ethical violations will be evaluated by independent experts. This is considered an achievement. However, critics emphasize the fact that the Ethical Standards Authority will only have advisory functions – it will not be able to punish anyone.

The non-governmental organization “Transparency International EU” states that the ethics body will not be independent and will not have the right to investigate the actions of the MPs. Therefore, according to them, the solution reached comes too late and achieves too little.

However, this too seemed too much for many parliamentarians. The European People’s Party MP from Germany, Sven Zymons, urged the vote to be postponed until the next parliamentary session and said that the establishment of this institution was a direct attack on the independence of MPs.

“This proposal for a so-called inter-institutional agreement is full of legal ambiguities that should be resolved before we vote.

Colleagues, do you really know what is written here? The Council will henceforth set ethical standards rather than clear legal rules. Moreover, they will not apply these standards to themselves, but they want us to apply them.

There is one more thing that I cannot understand. The main body of this institution – the secretariat – will be located in the European Commission. We, the European Parliament, should control the commission. But in the future, the commission will control our moral standards,” said Zīmons in confusion.

Zymons is not satisfied that the Council of the European Union, where the bloc’s member states unite, has not joined the Ethical Standards Authority. Commissioner Sinkevičs also expressed regret for this.

However, Greens MP from Germany Daniel Freund, who was responsible for moving the issue through parliament, believes that this is no reason for MPs not to improve their monitoring of the rules.

“It is one of the main parliamentary responses to the scandals we have seen, including in this institution during the current term. We will not give the Council any power over our rules or their implementation. It is a joint decision of the eight institutions to create common standards and the European Parliament has a veto on it for every decision. Therefore, the council cannot impose anything on us,” stressed Freind.

In the end, 301 deputies voted “for” joining the Ethics Standards Authority, while 216 were “against”.

On the other hand, “Transparency International EU”, where Freund worked before becoming a member of parliament, adds that the MEPs also did not support a clear ban on receiving income from other jobs in parallel with working in the European Parliament. This is not allowed for Latvian MEPs, but it is possible for MEPs from many other countries to sit on company boards or, for example, provide well-paid consultancy. This, in turn, may raise doubts about the integrity of their votes.