Wednesday

29th Mar 2023

Far-right opposed EU ethics body to fight corruption

  • After much delay, the EU Commission is set to propose a new inter-institutional ethics body (Photo: European Parliament)
Listen to article

Far-right and conservative MEPs either opposed or abstained from a vote on setting up an independent ethics committee to weed out corruption across all EU institutions.

The vote held in Strasbourg on Thursday (16 February) comes in the wake of the on-going fallout of a Qatargate scandal that has shaken the European Parliament.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Although 388 MEPs supported the proposal for the anti-corruption committee, another 72 voted against while 76 abstained.

The 72 naysayers include most of the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) as well as other far-right nationalists like Nicolas Bay from France and Dutchman Marcel de Graaff.

Almost all of the members from Hungary's leading party Fidesz abstained, including former European Parliament vice-president Lívia Járóka.

The European Commission is now set to present its proposal for the ethics body sometime next month after having floated the idea over three years ago.

Earlier this week, the EU commissioner for transparency Vera Jourova, said the inter-institutional body would serve as a "preventative measure at upfront respect of clear rules."

"The inter-institutional body will allow the institutions to benefit from their mutual experiences to learn from each other," she said.

But Thursday's vote in the plenary in Strasbourg sets down a wish-list of powers and rules for the body ahead of the Jourova's proposal.

Supporters have hailed the vote as an important step towards improving integrity in the EU institutions.

"After the Qatargate scandal and despite the right's attempts to block it, the time for action has finally come," Manon Aubry, co-president of the Left group, tweeted.

Similar comments came from German Green Daniel Freund who had been pressing for the creation of an ethics body for years.

"The EU ethics body must have teeth. Self-regulation must be replaced, not supplemented by an advisory body," he said, in an emailed statement.

Freund has accused the European Commission of dragging its feet on the issue, noting that the EU institution has also seen its share of lobby scandals.

This includes former Jose Manuel Barroso, who landed a job at Goldman Sachs shortly after ending his term as commission president.

Other notable cases include German former commissioner Guenther Oettinger who took on 17 jobs during his two-year cooling off period, as well as former commission vice-president turned Uber lobbyist Neelie Kroes.

The MEPs on Thursday want the future ethics body to start investigations on its own and to conduct on-the-spot investigations.

They also said it should be able to act on its own initiative.

And they want negotiations on its creation to start even it means the body only initially covers the EU parliament and the Commission out of fear that the Council, representing member states, will drag out talks.

But crucially an amendment to also empower the body with binding decisions failed to muster enough support.

Almost all of the centre-right EPP and liberals at Renew Europe rejected it, along with the far-right ID and the conservatives at ECR.

Qatargate? EU parliament's culture of impunity is its own creation

EU parliament president Roberta Metsola blamed "malign actors linked to autocratic third countries" for the Qatargate corruption scandal. But the parliament's Bureau has for years seeded a culture of impunity where MEPs can get away with almost anything.

Opinion

Why are rightwing MEPs now going after NGOs?

It's become clear Qatargate is being used by rightwing MEPs to cast doubt on civil society. For them, the sometimes successful campaigns by often under-financed and understaffed NGOs is a pain — it counters their private sector and neo-liberal ideology.

Opinion

Biden's 'democracy summit' poses questions for EU identity

From the perspective of international relations, the EU is a rare bird indeed. Theoretically speaking it cannot even exist. The charter of the United Nations, which underlies the current system of global governance, distinguishes between states and organisations of states.

Opinion

Turkey's election — the Erdoğan vs Kılıçdaroğlu showdown

Turkey goes to the polls in May for both a new parliament and new president, after incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan decided against a post-earthquake postponement. The parliamentary outcome is easy to predict — the presidential one less so.

Latest News

  1. EU approves 2035 phaseout of polluting cars and vans
  2. New measures to shield the EU against money laundering
  3. What does China really want? Perhaps we could try asking
  4. Dear EU, the science is clear: burning wood for energy is bad
  5. Biden's 'democracy summit' poses questions for EU identity
  6. Finnish elections and Hungary's Nato vote in focus This WEEK
  7. EU's new critical raw materials act could be a recipe for conflict
  8. Okay, alright, AI might be useful after all

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality
  6. Promote UkraineInvitation to the National Demonstration in solidarity with Ukraine on 25.02.2023

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Azerbaijan Embassy9th Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting and 1st Green Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting
  2. EFBWWEU Social Dialogue review – publication of the European Commission package and joint statement of ETUFs
  3. Oxfam InternationalPan Africa Program Progress Report 2022 - Post Covid and Beyond
  4. WWFWWF Living Planet Report
  5. Europan Patent OfficeHydrogen patents for a clean energy future: A global trend analysis of innovation along hydrogen value chains

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us