Without “Qatargate”, the European Union (EU) would never have had an ethics body to oversee all of its institutions. But this alleged corruption scandal of European parliamentarians and officials by Qatar and Morocco, among others, brought to light in December 2022, has changed the situation.
The resistance has not disappeared but, on Tuesday March 12, an important step could be taken, during a meeting between representatives of the institutions concerned (the Parliament, the Council, the Council of the European Union, the Commission, the Court of Justice, the Central Bank and the Court of Auditors). They hope to mark the birth of the ethical body, by defining its missions and scope. The agreement will then have to be ratified by each of the stakeholders before being formally adopted, probably in May.
First pocket of resistance: the Commission, whose president Ursula von der Leyen has never been very forthcoming on the subject, as it irritates Berlin and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from which it comes. While she had promised, upon her arrival in 2019, to work on the establishment of an ethics body, it was not until June 8, 2023 that she made a proposal.
A “toothless bulldog”
In his eyes, the ethics body, for which five independent experts will be appointed, will have to define – within nine months of its installation – minimum standards in terms of ethics, to which the institutions will have to comply. Today they each have their own regulations and will under no circumstances be able to take advantage of these new standards to reduce their requirements.
These rules will relate in particular to declarations of interest, gifts, trips, decorations, meetings with lobbyists, revolving doors, the possibility of having another job and the internal mechanisms which will make it possible to enforce them. They will apply to political leaders, elected or appointed by governments, such as European commissioners, MEPs or judges of the Court of Luxembourg.
“Within two years, we will realize that these rules are a game-changer”, assures an advisor to Vera Jourova, the Commissioner for Values and Transparency. Devoid of power of investigation and sanctions, the ethical body imagined by the Commission resembles a “toothless bulldog”commented Stéphane Séjourné several times, when he was still president of the Renew group in the European Parliament.
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