MEP Eva Kaili soon to return to the European Parliament?

In the hemicycle of the European Parliament, left side, chair 547 is his. That of Eva Kaili, the Greek MEP, involved in the “Qatargate” scandal, which splashed the institution last December. The fact that the chair is empty is starting to make people talk again, while the former vice-president of the institution plans to sit soon.

According to her lawyer, her return to Parliament is imminent even if this 44-year-old ex-journalist is charged with corruption and participation in a criminal organization: 150,000 euros in cash were found at the socialist’s, in bags. The date of Monday, June 12 is mentioned. “We will see at that time if she still has friends,” blows a European source. “She risks at least being looked at askance,” said another.

An ethics committee project that is not new

In the meantime, all eyes are on another institution, not far from Parliament: the Commission. On Wednesday June 7, the institution chaired by the Christian Democrat Ursula von der Leyen must adopt a proposal for a “European ethics committee”.

Objective: to provide the institutions and other bodies of the European Union (EU) with common rules on transparency and integrity. The idea is not new: Ursula von der Leyen pleaded for the establishment of such a committee as early as 2019, and in 2021, in a resolution, the European Parliament also called for its creation. But since then, nothing.

Qatargate has reshuffled the cards and made the need to review the rules in place more urgent. “The scandal made the fight against corruption, transparency and ethics political priorities for the EU and forced the Commission to put the work back on the job”, notes Jean Comte, author of the book Au heart of European lobbying. The issue of strengthening ethics has also become more sensitive, and on the contours of the future committee, prior to its presentation, the Commission refuses to give too many details.

Standards of conduct

A dozen institutions, such as the Commission itself, the European Parliament, the European Council (which brings together Heads of State and Government), the Council of the EU (which brings together European ministers, topic by topic) and other European Committee of the Regions, European Economic and Social Committee, European Central Bank or European Investment Bank, should be affected by the new rules.

These will deal, among other things, with the management of conflicts of interest or the protection of whistleblowers, and will outline new standards of conduct for elected officials, ministers, European commissioners, etc. On the other hand, there is a priori no question of granting the committee powers of investigation or sanctions. It should be limited to publishing reports on each other’s practices and recommendations for improving them.

To create such a committee, the agreement of the various participants will be necessary. For the environmental MEP Michèle Rivasi, we must “already start by amending the statute of elected officials by suspending those who are indicted for corruption or other major crime”. According to the elected representative from Montélimar, “until they are cleared by the courts, they should not resume their function as legislators”.

Marc Tarabella already returned to Parliament

Eva Kaili spent four months in pre-trial detention, before being placed under house arrest in mid-April in Brussels. On May 25, the examining magistrate Michel Claise authorized her to remove her electronic bracelet. Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella, also implicated in the Qatargate affair but who has always maintained his innocence, for his part has returned to Parliament, where he has resumed his work in the Fisheries Committee.

In plenary, during a vote organized on Thursday June 1 concerning the “duty of vigilance of companies in terms of sustainability”, he praised a measure “decisive for the rights of workers, ethics and morals (…)”. He too will be entitled to comment on the new European ethics committee.

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More transparent rules

In January 2023, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, presented an emergency plan in 14 measures – validated by the group presidents – to better fight against corruption and interference.

This plan proposes to ban friendship groups with third countries, to strengthen the control of lobbyists and former MEPs, to impose more transparency on the activities of MEPs (meetings, gifts received), to extend the transparency register to diplomatic contacts…

In a report presented on June 1, MEPs also called for a rapid revision of the code of conduct, with penalties for those who break it.

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