The plan focuses, among other things, on providing enhanced protection to the “deep throats” of the European Parliament
Senior officials of the European Parliament they will propose a 10-point plan to tackle corruption in the body, in the shadow of Qatargate, the worst EU bribery scandal in decades.
“In the wake of bribery allegations that have engulfed Brussels, European Parliament chief Roberta Metzola is set to present a plan in January to tackle the loopholes and dysfunctions that have allowed corruption and improper lobbying practices to thrive,” they told the POLITICO told two people with knowledge of the plans.
The plan focuses, among other things, on providing enhanced protection to those who disclose suspicious transactions within the 705-member assembly. As POLITICO comments, “although Parliament voted for such protections for EU citizens, it stopped short of providing such protections to its own officials, and whistleblowers faced retaliation for speaking out about illegal or suspicious behavior in their offices.”
“This is a huge gap that we need to fill. This is the biggest problem we have. We have to let these people help us uncover criminality,” said a parliament official.
“We have a structure problem in Parliament. The foreign affairs committee has a lot of expertise and influence. But we also have ‘friend groups’ which are random and hard to control. Gift declaration is voluntary,” another official even commented.
For now, the European Parliament it does not compel lobbyists representing state interests to reveal their ties to a public transparency registry, thus opening a huge loophole for their influence.
“And then we have a problem with former members of parliament,” said another person familiar with the 10-point plans, referring to the fact that former MEPs retain unlimited access in the Parliament buildings. “What we will check are former members who enter (the European Parliament) to exert pressure. The logic is to lose their privileges. They should as lobbyists.”
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