MEPs miss opportunity to safeguard against corruption following Qatargate

Today, Members of the European Parliament adopted the special report from the Committee on Foreign Interference (ING2). Following the Qatargate scandal, the ING2 committee made recommendations for the reform of Parliament’s internal rules on integrity, transparency, accountability and anti-corruption. The report comes ahead of the vote in September on part of President Metsola’s 14-point plan. 

Heidi Hautala MEP, Greens/EFA shadow rapporteur on the Recommendations for reform of the European Parliament’s rules on transparency, integrity, accountability and anti-corruption in the ING2 committee, comments: 

“While we welcome the fact that the Parliament is taking steps towards being more transparent, the decision taken today falls far short of what is needed. The European Parliament needs to seize the opportunity created by the Qatargate scandal to radically improve its internal rules. The Parliament must go further than the adopted report to ensure that it upholds the highest standards on transparency and integrity in order to rebuild trust. 

“The Parliament needs to institute a cooling-off period for its members of up to 24 months after leaving office and at least as long as a member is entitled to receive the transitional allowance. In addition, upon the initiative of the Greens/EFA group, a ban on side-jobs that fall under the scope of the transparency register was adopted and should be implemented as soon as possible. On the initiative of our group, it was also clarified that requirements for NGOs to disclose all funding information needs to take into account the situation of NGOs in authoritarian and illiberal regimes, especially when it might put them at risk.”