Greens/EFA Vice-Presidents will push for more transparency, ethics and openness

Dear correspondents,

Today, the European Parliament voted to confirm key positions in the Bureau of the European Parliament. The Greens/EFA group had two Members elected for Vice-President positions, Heidi Hautala, Green MEP from Finland and Marcel Kolaja, European Pirates MEP from Czech Republic.

Heidi Hautala, Greens/EFA MEP and Vice-President of the European Parliament, comments:

"The European elections put a lot of trust and faith in this new Parliament and it's our responsibility to make it work for European citizens. That's why, we need to end conflicts of interests, establish a truly independent ethics body, and improve the code of conduct. We need to guarantee the right of access to information and for the Parliament to proactively publish important documents. The Parliament must become the leading institution on lobby transparency and all Members should commit to publishing their lobby meetings online. Parliamentary employees must be protected from all forms of harassment and should be supported if they encounter cases of corruption or wrong-doing."

"We also need to continue the greening of this Parliament. The Parliament needs to lead by example and make a positive contribution to sustainable development, not just through legislation but also in its operations, every day."

Marcel Kolaja, Greens/EFA MEP and Vice-President of the European Parliament, comments:

"I would like to promote transparency and digitization in the European Parliament. My role as Vice-President will be to make the European Parliament more open and transparent, to help ensure that the rules of the Parliament are applied equally to all Members and to work on improvements of the rules where they are currently lacking. Information technologies and digitization, which are the areas of my professional focus, are becoming increasingly important and I hope that my expertise and insights in these fields will be a valuable contribution in the future Bureau’s discussions on improving the work of the European Parliament."

More:

The Greens/EFA group consists of 75 Members. You can find a full list of the Greens/EFA group MEPs on our website here: https://www.greens-efa.eu/en/our-group/meps/

The proposed list of Greens/EFA MEPs for Committee positions, which will be confirmed next week, can be found here: http://extranet.greens-efa-service.eu/public/media/file/1/6154