New EU Ethics Body essential for accountability & integrity

Today, the European Parliament will vote on the agreement reached on the joint creation of a new EU Ethics Body. The Greens/EFA Group have long been calling for an EU Ethics Body to help improve the integrity and accountability of the EU institutions, with Daniel Freund’s report on the need for an EU ethics body back in 2021. The Greens/EFA Group led the push following the Qatargate revelations to move forward on negotiations for the body.

Daniel Freund MEP, Greens/EFA Group Rapporteur on the EU Interinstitutional Body for Ethical Standards, comments:

“The stories of lobbyists drafting vital laws, Commissioners walking through the revolving door and corrupt politicians hiding bags of cash under the bed must end. The new EU Ethics Body is a groundbreaking first step to better enforce rules for politicians, to fight corruption, and to protect the integrity of EU institutions.

“The inclusion of checks on individual cases by independent experts is essential to guarantee that this body will be effective. It’s quite clear that the institutions' reliance on self-regulation has failed to stop cases of corruption or the misuse of power. Independent experts will help ensure that the public interest counts more than the money behind big lobbying firms and large corporations.

“It is very welcome that we will finally have an ethics body to improve the accountability of the EU institutions, which we have long fought for. However, we will not stop fighting to improve the Ethics Body, to give it more teeth and more scope in order to make the EU institutions a beacon of integrity and accountability.”

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The Ethics Body will work on, update, and interpret common standards for ethical conduct, and publish reports on how far these standards have been adopted in each institution. The Commission, Council, Parliament and the other participating institutions and bodies will each be represented by one senior member sitting on the Body, with a rotating chairmanship that will switch every year between the parties, starting with the European Parliament. The Body will be supported by five independent experts who may be consulted by a party to the agreement on declarations of interest or other written declarations (including on lobby meetings, gifts or invitations by third parties).