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European Parliament President Roberta Metsola announced 142 gifts received for MEPs on a public register, in a move that exposed limited transparency rules at the EU institution.
Metsola, a Maltese MEP from the centre-right European People’s Party group, entered the gifts she received into an official public record, which MPs rarely update. In doing so last week, however, she missed the deadline for MEPs to declare their gifts in respect of the 125 items on their list.
Metsola’s team argued that his announcements broke with years of secrecy by former Speakers of Parliament, none of whom were able to publicly disclose the hundreds of gifts showered on them by foreign dignitaries. His spokesman said that the deadline for MEPs does not “customarily” apply to Metsola because he is Speaker of Parliament as well as an MEP, although his team has not officially documented this exemption anywhere in writing. could not be determined from
“It shows the system is broken,” said Micheal van Holten, director of Transparency International EU and former MEP. “You can’t operate an ethics system based on unwritten rules. It’s good that he’s done it now, but there’s no reward for sticking to the rules.
The emergence of Metsola’s gifts comes at a highly sensitive time for the EU Parliament. Institution struggles to re-establish its credibility amid police probe Allegations that senior figures in Brussels were involved in corruptionmoney laundering and participation in a criminal organization.
Metsola told Politico, “When a president receives a gift, it is in my capacity as a member of parliament, not as a member.” After the so-called Qatargate corruption investigation began, “the landscape was different, which means I’m going to list everything that would have been announced internally anyway,” she said.
Metsola’s spokesman said: “She wants to be as open as possible and set an example that other MEPs can follow.”
Terry Reintke, co-chair of the Greens group, said Metsola’s revelations showed there was a need for an independent EU ethics body outside parliament. “Transparency should apply to everyone so it’s good that she’s making it public now,” Reintke said.
“I think it also shows that we need better enforcement of the rules and that we cannot leave everything up to internal investigation structures.”
Gifts Metsola received included: a gold model tower of Moroccan veteran politician Naam Mayara; a white dress with gold embroidery worn by Fawzia Zainal, speaker of Bahrain’s parliament; a scarf from French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne; Sennheiser wireless earphones from the German Bundestag; vase from the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union; a white blouse by Moldova’s President Maia Sandu; a book about Bruges from the rector of the College of Europe, Federica Mogherini; and a decorative plate from the Ambassador of Uzbekistan to the Benelux countries.
Metsola also received champagne, chocolates, cookies, cakes and dried sausages, which were “served during the functions of Parliament.”
For 125 of those gifts, Metsola’s announcement came after the deadline for notifying them according to MEP rules. under the parliament Code of conduct For members, gifts must be disclosed by the end of the month following the month in which the MEP received them.
According to an annex to the Code of Conduct for MEPs, the scope of the gift rules covers “any” MEP representing Parliament in an official capacity, including the President. Nevertheless, it is the case that the person who must be informed of the gifts is the President himself, or at least his own office.
According to an official in Parliament press services, past presidents announced their gifts at the end of the term, bypassing the process of putting them on the public register and instead reporting directly to Parliament’s civil service.
Each of the president’s announcements was “administratively made, but not entered into the public register,” the official said.
According to public records, only one previous president – Antonio Tajani of the EPP, who had the job from 2017 to 2019 – declared a gift on the public register. It was a book of portraits of a Portuguese statesman.
However, there is no written rule that clearly states that the President is exempt from following the procedure that covers other MEPs, and the European Parliament’s press service was unable to say where the rules were interpreted. Or who was responsible for implementing it in this way.
A spokesman for Metsola said that the “custom” was that the speaker of parliament had more leeway and was only expected to announce gifts when his term ended. The official argued that the gifts were not given to Metsola himself, but to the institution of the European Parliament. Metsola is choosing to be more transparent by making a public announcement while still in office, the spokesperson said, adding that she will now regularly update the register gifts by gift.
“This is not the same as MEPs as these are gifts to the European Parliament accepted by the President,” the spokesman said. “She’s breaking with past practice from previous presidents to do it in a more transparent way, and instead of one big package they eventually come with.”
“She wants to be as open as possible and set an example that other MEPs can follow,” the spokesman said.
Asked where the written procedure says that the looser rules apply to the Speaker of Parliament, the spokesman said: “I don’t know exactly where it is written, but it is a practice that has been implemented, in the past. That’s how presidents have done it. So it’s, what you say, it’s established practice.”
Metsola received all the gifts announced after becoming President on January 18, 2022.
EU Parliament officials also said that in the past there had been a reluctance among lobbyists and MEPs to be proactive about declaring gifts to avoid breeding a culture of competitive gift-giving.
corruption charges
Metsola struggles to repair parliament’s reputation Qatargate The controversy erupted last month. An investigation by Belgian prosecutors has detained four suspects, including former deputy speaker of parliament MEP Eva Kelly, on preliminary corruption charges pending an investigation into alleged influence-buying involving Qatar and Morocco.
Former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri now pleads guilty and is killed a deal To cooperate with the prosecutor in exchange for a more lenient sentence.
Earlier this month, Metsola announced 14 proposed reforms System to strengthen transparency rules for MEPs in the wake of Qatargate, including changes to make the gift register more visible on Parliament’s website. His plan was decided in a closed-door meeting with top leaders of Parliament.
The only one of Metsola’s gifts that she has recorded as being worth more than €150 is a gift from the Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates, which she received in February 2022. Pind Khajur.” A plaque on the gift describes itself as a “shield representing the logo of Expo 2020”, a world fair that the UAE will host in Dubai between October 2021 and March 2022.
The gifts register applies to all MEPs, but since the start of this legislature in mid-2019, only 10 MPs, including Metsola, have declared any gifts.
Daniel Caspari, a German EPP lawmaker who announced seven gifts, five of which he received while leading a parliament delegation on relations with Southeast Asia, wrote to Politico: “Due to covid the last years hardly Any international activities took place. Perhaps that’s why only a few colleagues have registered the gifts.
As president, Metsola is ultimately responsible for approving breaches of the code of conduct, after receiving advice from a panel of MEPs. This raises the awkward prospect of Metsola whether or not to sanction himself for missing the deadline.