EU Parliament, popular and right-wingers block agreement on EU ethics body

Brussels – The creation of an independent European ethics body, clamoured for by the major EU institutions in the aftermath of the Qatargate outbreak in December 2022, is moving forward slowly and is increasingly an empty project. After the no’s of the European Council and the Council of the European Union, which have already called off more than a year ago, now the European Parliament is also backing down. Today (May 14), the Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO) rejected the implementation of the agreement on the body that should develop and apply the same ethical and transparency standards in all rooms in Brussels.

The opposition from the European People’s Party (EPP), which sided with right-wing and far-right groups to scuttle the proposal to update the parliamentary rules of procedure necessary to include the body, was decisive, defeating a commitment made by the president of the EU Parliament, Roberta Metsola, who is part of the EPP. At the vote count, the proposal was rejected by 13 yes and 17 no votes.

The establishment of the new body had been proposed by the European Commission in June 2023, in the wake of the corruption scandal involving Qatar and Morocco and several MEPS and assistants. Already stripped of several prerogatives, including investigative powers and sanctioning capabilities, in the then-Commissioner Vera Jourova’s proposal, along the way it lost the support of two of the nine institutions that were supposed to be part of it (in addition to the European Council and the Council of the EU, the European Commission, the Parliament, the Committee of the Regions, the Economic and Social Affairs Committee, the European Central Bank, the Court of Auditors, and the EU Court of Justice).

Paradoxically, it was the EU Parliament itself, in a resolution adopted on July 12, 2023, that had denounced an “unsatisfactory” proposal because—it said—it “does not propose the creation of a truly independent body.” The role of the body, in the agreement reached in May 2024 by the institutions, would be to establish common standards for ethical conduct of members and a formal mechanism for coordination and exchange of views on ethical requirements among the institutions.

However, the EPP, which in the last legislature was bound to the only possible majority—the one with the progressive wing composed of liberals, socialists, and greens—has decided to turn its back on the project once and for all, on the strength of the new composition of the EU Parliament, in which the right-wing groups—conservatives (ECR), patriots (PfE) and sovereignists (ESN)—are on the rise and able to secure an alternative majority. A majority that has already been tested in recent months to water down several dossiers related to the green transition.

“We have always been in favour of measures to increase ethical standards and accountability; however, we have strongly opposed the creation of a new external body to regulate the internal workings of the European Parliament,” reads a note circulated by the EPP. Loránt Vincze, a People’s MEP and member of the AFCO committee, said that the body “would violate the presumption of innocence and publicly stigmatize politicians.” According to the EPP, “instead of creating new structures, we should strengthen existing law enforcement bodies, such as the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), by placing them alongside our national judiciaries.”

Socialists and liberals, stabbed in the back by allies who, despite cooperation pacts and signed understandings, are increasingly struggling to keep within the ranks of the pro-European majority, are on a rampage. “Today the European People’s Party has dropped its mask,” said Sandro Gozi, MEP for the Renew Liberals, denouncing “a serious and hypocritical decision: they talk about transparency, but they vote against it.” Condemnation also from the Social Democrats (S&D), whose shadow rapporteur for the proposal to update the regulation, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, said, “Conservatives are ready to call for transparency for NGOs, but they hate the idea when it could be applied to them.”

Coordinators in AFCO from the S&D, Renew, Green and Left groups have sent a letter to Metsola urging her to uphold Parliament’s commitment to the Ethics Board. However, the road now is all uphill. According to what parliamentary sources told the Policy Europe news agency, “next steps are currently being discussed at various levels, and options also include a resolution in plenary. During the Afco meeting, the Greens announced their intention to seek advice from the legal service on the issue.”