The silent right opposes stricter transparency rules in the EU Parliament

Before Christmas last year, a scandal broke out in the European Parliament as police arrested several EU parliamentarians and aides on suspicion of receiving bribes from Qatar and Morocco to advance certain issues in favor of the two countries.

The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Mizzola, quickly called for the Parliament to be straightened out and put forward a 14-point plan on how to tighten Parliament’s regulations. Now he has a question What should the changes look like? Processed by the committee. The vote in the committee was tied, with a majority of 15 votes to 10, with one abstention. The opponents belong to the three right-wing groups in parliament, the conservative Christian Democratic European People’s Party (EPP), the conservative European National Party, and the far-right Identity Party.

This week, the entire parliament will take a position on the proposed tightening of the regulatory framework, with greater accounting requirements imposed on the income of members and the lobbyists they meet, among other things. Before the vote, the proposal was discussed on Monday evening in Strasbourg.

Democracy takes place in broad daylight and not in the dark corners of the night. But there are different levels of ambition [i EU-parlamentet]said Gabriele Bischof, the German Social Democratic parliamentarian who is leading these efforts.

However, the discussion was attended almost exclusively by members of the party groups – the Social Democratic, Social Democratic, Religious Liberal, Green and Left Group – who are behind the updated regulations.

-We must learn a lesson from him [Qatarskandalen] French liberal Gilles Boyer said that this was disastrous for the image of Parliament and the European Union.

Many of them felt that the proposal could have gone further in order to reduce the risks of bribery and conflicts of interest among members.

– Public funds should not enrich politicians. Politics should not be conducted under the pressure of dirty money. It is the foundation of democracy. We say this to the rest of the world, to Member States, other institutions and business. Gwendoline Delbos Corfield, a French environmental activist, said that in this parliament we are still looking for the least possible restrictions on members.

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Two members of the largest party group, the conservative European People’s Party and the Christian Democrats, participated in the discussion. But none of them were outright opponents of the proposal. The only person to make any criticism was Dutchman Doreen Ruckmaker of the national conservative group ECR, who argued that the problem lay not with previous regulations but with lack of compliance.

– In the eyes of ordinary people, the European Union Parliament is a corrupt organization. That’s because some members are simply corrupt, Rockmaker said, adding that she wants to see an evaluation of the proposal’s impact first.

Other critics were so conspicuous by their absence that one proponent, German ecologist Damian Boeselger, barged into the debate and presented what he considered to be the most common argument of opponents – that stricter transparency rules would conflict with the principle of transparency. The freedom granted in the mandate that EU parliamentarians receive when elected.

Voting on Wednesday

The entire European Union parliaments will vote tomorrow, Wednesday, on a proposal to tighten rules against conflicts of interest and bribery and increase openness around meetings with lobbyists.

– It is very difficult to understand that some on the right oppose these rules. Italian Social Democrat Brando Benevi said the final vote will show who really wants to reform our institutions.