STRASBOURG — MEPs Eva Kaili and Marc Tarabella want the Commission to take a tougher approach to enforcing ethics across the EU institutions.
Both stand accused of accepting cash in return for political favors in what has been dubbed Qatargate. And they are among the 365 MEPs who backed a resolution on Wednesday calling the Commission’s proposal for an interinstitutional ethics body “unsatisfactory and not ambitious enough.”
It was the political scandal of Qatargate that moved the moribund idea of an independent ethics minder back onto the front burner. Yet ethics hawks in the Parliament were disappointed last month when the Commission proposed a panel that would not have the power to start its own investigations or impose sanctions.
Instead, the Commission plans would set baseline requirements for EU politicians on declaring assets, disclosing third-party travel, and restrictions on side jobs. Then each institution, including the Parliament, would make commitments on how to enforce rules internally.
The Socialists & Democrats in the Parliament say that’s not going far enough — and Kaili and Tarabella agreed. They were both kicked out of the S&D after being implicated in the scandal, but they went along with their former grouping in calling for an ethics cop with real teeth.
(Kaili broke ranks with the S&D on one amendment, rejecting a call by The Left to include all political groups in the panel of MEPs weighing in on the negotiations with other institutions.)
Tuesday’s plenary session marked Kaili’s first day back at work since her arrest and since Belgian officials charged her in the institution’s largest-ever corruption scandal.
Since Kaili’s release from prison and house arrest pending trial, she and her lawyers — who insist loudly on the presumption of innocence — have been paving the way for her return to politics. She was cleared to attend the plenary in Strasbourg last month but failed to show. Tarabella has voted and made speeches for a while now.
Kaili, a former Parliament vice president before being booted out of the S&D, issued no tweet or press release about her return to the EP. But according to voting records, she took stances on topics ranging from Fit for 55 legislation to a resolution criticizing a new “Lex Tusk” in Poland. Polish nationalists and Hungarians affiliated with Brussels-basher-in-chief Viktor Orbán have leapt upon Qatargate to bolster their own anti-EU political ambitions.
Kaili and Tarabella also added to the left-leaning parties’ razor-thin majority to back a contentious nature restoration bill in the face of conservatives’ campaign against the plan.
