
EU parliament snubs anti-corruption researchers
The European Parliament refused to cooperate with an EU institutional-wide study on integrity and ethics by Transparency International, one of the world’s most prestigious anti-corruption NGOs.
“The European Parliament, despite its publicly-stated support for greater transparency was, in fact, the only institution that refused to cooperate,” said Michiel van Hulten, who heads Transparency International’s EU office in Brussels.
The parliament did the same in 2014, when the NGO launched a similar probe.
A letter sent by the parliament’s president at that time claimed itself to be “extremely transparent” and so saw no need to cooperate.
It has now sent the very same letter to its most recent study.
“They unfortunately did not go through the trouble of writing a new letter,” noted the lead author of the reports, Transparency International’s Leo Hoffmann-Axthelm.
He ascribed the parliament’s decision as an overall lack of accountability within its administrative leadership.
This includes the ‘Bureau’, composed of the secretary general and the vice presidents.
“Honestly we are not sure what ultimately the reason is,” he said, noting that the initial response had been positive.
But the final study, also published on Thursday, noted almost zero penalties whenever an MEP breaks internal house conduct rules.
Instead, a small in-house advisory committee is charged with making sure MEPs follow the rules.
But that same committee is composed of MEPs – and any sanctions must be rubber-stamped by the parliament’s president.
Other shortfalls include no systematic check on financial declarations of MEPs’ lucrative side jobs, ineffective whistleblower rules for parliamentary assistants, and conflicts of interests for MEPs leading major policy files.
Hoffmann-Axthelm warned such lax oversight “poses a significant risk” of scandals involving MEPs.
By Nikolaj Nielsen, EUobserver, 5 February 2021
Read more at the EUobserver
Source: riskscreen.com