Today, the European Parliament has taken an important step for the cleanup of the current corruption scandal. The mandate of the Special Committee against Foreign Interference has been extended and it will become the central place for dealing with the ‘Qatar-Gate’ scandal and to draw conclusions. Necessary measures for more transparency, integrity, accountability and anti-corruption will be negotiated in order to present a reform plan. The committee will meet in public. The Green members of the committee are Daniel Freund, Viola von Cramon and Markéta Gregorová. Deputies are going to be Reinhard Bütikofer, Heidi Hautala and Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield.

MEP Daniel Freund (Greens/EFA), member of the “special committee on foreign interference in all democratic processes in the European Union, including disinformation, and the strengthening of integrity, transparency and accountability in the European Parliament”, comments:

“Two months after the corruption scandal, the European Parliament finally has a special committee to clarify whether and which political decisions were bought. It is enormously important that this will be done publicly and that landmark reforms cannot be blocked in a backroom in the parliament. The anti-corruption rules in the EU institutions now need to be tightened up quickly. There is not much time left until the 2024 European elections to regain lost trust.”

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The committee is expected to adopt medium- and long-term measures, complementing the “first steps” in the reform plan presented by Parliament President Roberta Metsola and agreed by the group leaders on 8 February.

The newly inserted paragraph in the committee’s mandate reads: “The European Parliament 1. decides that the special committee shall henceforth be named “special committee on foreign interference in all democratic processes in the European Union, including disinformation, and the strengthening of integrity, transparency and accountability in the European Parliament” and that it shall have the following responsibilities: …(f) to identify the shortcomings in the European Parliament’s rules on transparency, integrity, accountability and anti-corruption, consider other medium- to longer-term measures and issue recommendations for reforms, building on the European Parliament’s resolutions and the best practices of other parliaments and institutions, working in close cooperation with the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and the Committee on Foreign Affairs;”

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/B-9-2023-0119_EN.html