All the European institutions agree that they have to strengthen their detection and surveillance systems to avoid cases of corruption such as Qatargate, a bribery trade for MEPs and assistants from the emirate and which originates in Morocco, according to the investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office. Belgian. Now the Ombudsman of the EU also says so, who welcomes the proposals outlined by the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, but to which she calls for greater ambition in the response. In a letter sent on Friday, Emily O’Reilly proposes that surveillance on the activity of parliamentarians be strengthened beyond the 14 measures that Metsola presented to parliamentary groups, which have also demanded greater determination.
The European Parliament approves reinforcing controls in the face of Qatar’s interference but avoids pointing to Morocco
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“I applaud your determination to restore the credibility of the European Parliament in the wake of the corruption scandal involving MEPs [la exvicepresidenta Eva Kaili está en prisión desde el mes de diciembre y la justicia belga ha reclamado el levantamiento de la inmunidad de los socialistas Marc Tarabella y Andrea Cozzolino] and from non-EU countries that seek to negatively influence the work of the Chamber. A scandal like this is a gift to those who want to harm or belittle the entire EU”, O’Reilly points out at the beginning of his letter in which he makes some observations on the measures proposed by Metsola, to which he asks for a calendar with the next steps and details of how Parliament will follow up on these proposals to make the reform process “as transparent as possible”.
The Ombudsman also demands that the advisory committee that oversees the code of conduct be strengthened, giving it powers to “monitor, investigate and ensure compliance with ethical standards” by providing it with “sufficient resources”. In addition, she welcomes the promise to demand more detailed declarations of interests from MEPs, but she asks for a system to verify their veracity.
Among the measures that the Ombudsman celebrates are preventing ‘revolving doors’ for a period of time, that is, that MEPs can go directly to work in a lobby immediately after finishing their mandate. Also that of forcing MEPs and their teams to make public their meetings with interest groups or third countries that have to do with resolutions on which they are working, but asks them to extend it to all the activity of the members of the Chamber, regardless of whether or not the meetings have to do with parliamentary activity.
After the outbreak of Qatargate, the European Parliament approved by a vast majority to strengthen controls to prevent interference from third countries as had happened with Qatar. Among the measures that were adopted, was the prohibition of the entry into Parliament of authorities from that country while the investigation lasts. However, Morocco was left out. In a recently approved resolution on the violation of human rights in the Alaouite kingdom and given the progress of the judicial investigations that point to their participation in the bribery scheme, the MEPs demanded that the Chamber also prevent access to Moroccan representatives, that they had exerted tremendous pressure on the MEPs to try to prevent the approval of that text against which the PSOE parliamentarians voted, breaking the voting discipline of the Social Democrats.
Metsola, for his part, presented in January a package of 14 measures to try to prevent new cases of corruption, among which are the prohibition of groups of friends from third countries or the withdrawal of annual passes for MEPs at the end of their mandates, in addition to those mentioned above. Some of the proposals simply require their imposition through administrative channels, but others require changing the rules of the European Parliament, which prolongs their implementation. Metsola asked the groups to send him their initiatives and in the near future he intends to promote the complete package.
“I am waiting for the detailed proposals that give effect to the general approach that you have outlined to see how the reform will be implemented in practice”, says goodbye to the Ombudsman, who wishes that this new framework will allow “regaining public confidence in the European democratic process”.