Thursday

8th Jun 2023

EU's proposed ethics body 'toothless', say campaigners

Transparency campaigners say the new ethics body proposed by the European Commission will do little to prevent corruption at the EU institutions. The proposal comes six months after allegations of a Qatari corruption affair involving a former European Parliament vice-president.

Letter

Right of Reply from the Hungarian government

Authors Samira Rafaela MEP and Tom Theuns present as facts the extreme views of a politically-motivated campaign in the European Parliament. By doing so, they undermine the very foundations of the European Union.

Latest News

  1. EU's proposed ethics body 'toothless', say campaigners
  2. Study: 90% of Spanish inflation 'driven by corporate profits'
  3. If Spanish economy is doing well, why is Sanchez poised to lose?
  4. EU lawyering for Russia: making 'good' money?
  5. The 'BlackRock exemption' has no place in the EU's due diligence directive
  6. Europeans don't see China as a rival, but weapons to Russia is a red line
  7. Cleaning workers urge Parliament: 'Europe should lead by example'
  8. Final push for EU-Mercosur deal, amid deforestation fears

Column

In 2024, Europe's voters need to pick a better crop of MEPs

At 2024's European Parliament elections, the stakes will be very high. A lot has happened in the last four years. In 2019, there was no pandemic, no war in Europe and no johnny-come-lately countries demanding a seat at the table.

Interview

Part of EU middle class 'being squeezed out', MEP warns

EUobserver interviewed Spanish MEP Jordi Cañas to discuss the situation of Europe's middle class, the dangerous political reaction if certain groups feel neglected, and the role that member states and the EU can play at the policy level.

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Analysis

Final steps for EU's due diligence on supply chains law

Final negotiations on the EU due diligence law begin this week. But will this law make companies embed due diligence requirements in their internal processes or incentive them to outsource their obligations to third parties?

Investigation

Europe's missing mails

How the EU Commission and national governments delete official emails and text messages — creating areas of decision-making without oversight and control.

MEPs to urge block on Hungary taking EU presidency in 2024

"This will be the first time a member state that is under the Article 7 procedure will take over the rotating presidency of the council," French Green MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, the key lawmaker on Hungary, warned.

Orbán: Ties with Sweden need to improve to join Nato

Budapest previously delayed ratifying Finland's application, and has cited grievances with criticism from both Helsinki and Stockholm of Viktor Orbán's domestic record on democracy and the rule of law.

European Parliament scales back luxury MEP pension fund

The European Parliament's Bureau, a political body composed of the president and its vice-presidents, decided to slash payouts from the fund by 50 percent, freeze automatic indexations, and increase the pension age from 65 to 67.

Column

What a Spanish novelist can teach us about communality

In a world where cultural clashes and sectarianism seems to be on the increase, Spanish novelist Javier Cercas (b.1962) takes the opposite approach. He cherishes both life in the big city and in the countryside.

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WhoisWho? Calls mount to bring back EU directory

NGOs and lobbyists slammed the EU commission for removing contact details of non-managerial staff from its public register, arguing that the institution is now less transparent.

Column

EU lobbying clean-up — what happened to that?

Six months after Qatargate, as institutional inertia and parliamentary privileges weigh in, the sense of gravity and collective resolve have all but disappeared. MEPs show little enthusiasm for reform of the rules that today allow them significant outside paid activities.

MEPs urge Orbán to act to unblock EU money

MEPs tasked with controlling spending of EU funds said they continued to have "great concerns" on how Hungary is handling EU money and called on prime minister Viktor Orbán's government to implement the necessary reforms to unblock suspended EU funds.

Opinion

Poland and Hungary's ugly divorce over Ukraine

What started in 2015 as a 'friends-with-benefits' relationship between Viktor Orbán and Jarosław Kaczyński, for Hungary and Poland, is ending in disgust and enmity — which will not be overcome until both leaders leave.

Opinion

The secretive EU body that likes to say 'no'

With the significant influence it can have on EU legislation, it is disturbing that the Regulatory Scrutiny Board is allowed to operate largely in secret. EU citizens and even MEPs have no insight into how the RSB reaches its decisions.

Exclusive

MEP luxury pension held corporate assets in tax havens

While the European Parliament was demanding a clamp down on tax havens, many of its own MEPs were using their monthly office allowances to finance a luxury pension scheme that held corporate assets in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and elsewhere.