IA little over a year ago, in December 2022, “Qatargate” caused deep unease in European society. It revealed a corrupt system involving a former parliamentary director of an NGO, parliamentary assistants and MEPs. It confirmed what the European mediator and a number of associations and NGOs have been pointing out for a long time: the decision-making processes which govern the regulation of a single market of 450 million inhabitants and 22 million businesses are subject to powerful lobbying. , whose actors have diversified and professionalized over time.
The criminal investigation initiated by the Belgian justice system now risks getting bogged down, which confirms the fragility of the criminal protection of European democracy. As for the political front, its response remained modest, European decision-makers having chosen continuity by marginally reforming anti-conflict of interest measures which give pride of place to the non-binding law of charters and other codes of conduct, and to self-regulation within the framework of ethics committees set up within each of the European institutions.
The proposal to create a European ethics body, formulated in June 2023 by the Commission, is difficult to convince, its powers being confined to simple work to harmonize the standards of European institutions in terms of transparency and conflicts of interest. And if the President of the European Assembly did carry out a modification of the internal regulations of the Parliament (the “Metsola plan”), in particular to prohibit the revolving door of MEPs within six months following the end of their mandate, the other proposed measures are limit themselves to strengthening transparency, already put in place by several obligations: certain European public officials must publish their declarations of interests as well as their agendas, while lobbyists must register in the European Parliament register.
Threat continuum
However, if transparency undoubtedly has democratic virtues, in particular for documenting influence practices, it cannot do everything: it does not effectively dissuade people from taking action in matters of corruption and influence peddling, and it does not does not prevent conflicts of interest from existing, even if they are known.
In short, faced with the continuum of threats weighing on it, the democracy of the Union shows very little concern for itself. However, the stakes are considerable: it is not simply a question of protecting the reputation of European institutions, or even that of the European project, as has been said too often, because it is above all European citizens who are the widespread victims of ‘a corruption which undermines the future capacity of the European Union (EU) to respond legitimately to the monumental challenges of our time (war and peace, ecological transition, social inequalities, etc.).
You have 48.66% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.