European Parliament Supports EU Ethics Body
Overwhelming majority for better lobbying transparency in the European Parliament! Today (Thursday, 16 September), the European Parliament adopted the report on “Improving transparency and integrity in the EU institutions through the establishment of an independent EU ethics body”. The proposal by rapporteur Daniel Freund (Greens/EFA) received 377 votes in favour, 87 MEPs voted against, with 224 abstentions. Greens/EFA, Socialists, Liberals (Renew) and Left voted in favour. The Christian Democrats decided to abstain shortly before the German federal election, instead of rejecting the draft as they had previously done in the vote in the Constitutional Affairs Committee.
A nine-person ethics body of independent experts shall credibly enforce the rules against conflicts of interest, revolving door effects and corruption within the EU institutions in the future. The report calls on the EU Commission to draw up an inter-institutional agreement on the establishment of an EU ethics body. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has already promised her support and commissioned Vice-President Vera Jourová with this task.
Daniel Freund, European Parliament rapporteur for the ethics body and member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs for the Greens/EFA Group comments:
“Today we celebrate a great success for Clean Politics in the European Union. The independent ethics body is a big step for stronger trust in European democracy. No one should ever get the impression that politics is for sale! The current system of self-monitoring is not strong enough to prevent scandals around conflicts of interest and revolving door effects.
The new ethics body can finally enforce the good European rules for lobby control in a credible way. Commissioners, MEPs and EU officials must be controlled by independent experts instead of their own colleagues. Parliament’s decision makes the new ethics body independent in its composition, gives it the right to launch its own investigations and publish its recommendations, thereby holding decision-makers accountable. With this assertiveness, the ethics body can gain credibility and prevent scandals that have plagued the European institutions for too long. The ethics body can therefore become a role model for lobby control in the EU.”
Christian Democrat amendments: rejected, fortunately
In three plenary amendments, the Christian Democrat EPP Group called for weakening the new body from the outset by limiting its investigative powers to the current agreement between the Commission and Parliament and delaying its role with regard to commissioner candidates.
The next step: The EU Commission drafts an inter-institutional agreement
Thursday’s vote is intended to establish the Parliament’s position. Next, we expect the Commission to draft an inter-institutional agreement (IIA) at least between the Commission and the Parliament, possibly also with the Council and open to the participation of other institutions. Once this IIA is negotiated and finalised, the ethics body can hopefully start its work before the end of this legislative term.