EU ombudsman Emily O’Reilly on Monday called for urgent changes to the EU’s ethics system in the wake of the Qatar corruption scandal that rocked the European Parliament.
In an interview with POLITICO, O’Reilly said that the failure of “political champions” to advance the EU’s ethics system over the years has allowed the scandals to grow. And he slammed EU institutions for not facing up to the threat of outside influence peddlers trying to corrupt the bloc.
The European Union, she said, “is a huge global player, and of course, everything from tech companies to states outside the EU are going to try to influence it.”
Yet as is often the case, “it looks like it’s going to take a scandal to turn things around,” she said. “While incremental change has occurred and is to be welcomed, there is never one giant leap.”
O’Reilly’s office was formed in 1995 to investigate complaints of mismanagement in EU institutions. But like the other institutions that make up the EU’s piecemeal approach to regulation and accountability, it has limited sanctioning powers.
As a result, for O’Reilly, the scandal seemed predictable in some ways.
“To some extent, one could have written the script,” he said. “Everyone is horrified, everyone is now going to do their best to get over it and put things in place to make sure that things like this can’t happen when the truth is out – whether I or others.” Civil society, actors, media, other politicians have been saying for years – that there are problems with the ethical system of EU governance.”
O’Reilly also took aim at European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has pledged that transparency will be a core part of her mandate when she heads the EU’s executive branch in 2019.
Referring to von der Leyen’s plan for a new ethics body, first outlined three years ago, O’Reilly said: “What we’re heading towards is a toothless thing, something like who will probably sit idly by, wait for the complaints to come in.” In.”
O’Reilly argued that what the body really needed were investigative and banning powers.
EU Commissioner Vera Jourova, who handles transparency and the rule of law, told Politico earlier this month The proposal would likely be a “thin layer”, consisting of an “advisory board” without the ability to scrutinize or enforce rules across EU institutions.
Von der Leyen said on Monday she wanted to see the European Commission’s existing rules apply to other EU institutions.
O’Reilly also notes that von der Leyen made an initial commitment to setting up an ethics body around the time she was seeking to obtain Parliament’s consent to become chairman of the commission.
“She was trying to connect with groups, makes sense — I mean, it’s politics — that would […] That kind of transparency, ethical issues on the agenda,” she said.
The Qatar influence scandal escalated on Monday with fresh raids of offices at the European Parliament. Federal prosecutors said IT equipment belonging to 10 members of Parliament’s staff has been frozen “to prevent the disappearance of data essential to the investigation”.
In total, prosecutors have seized €600,000 in cash at a suspect’s home, “several hundred thousand” euros in a suitcase in a Brussels hotel room and €150,000 in the flat of an MEP, believed to be Greek MEP Eva Kali. The investigation is going on for four months.
O’Reilly also said the revelations would make it more difficult for the EU to deal with rule-of-law issues in countries such as Poland and Hungary, calling it a “gift” to those with an “anti-EU agenda”. Will go
Sarah Wheaton and Christina Gonzalez contributed reporting,