O’Reilly urges European Parliament to implement reforms of rules governing MEPs’ declarations of interest

European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly has urged the European Parliament to implement reforms of rules governing MEPs’ declarations of interest ahead of the forthcoming parliamentary elections.

European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly has urged the European Parliament to implement reforms of rules governing MEPs’ declarations of interest ahead of the forthcoming parliamentary elections.

She said these reforms, brought in after the so-called Qatargate corruption scandal, need to be implemented “as quickly as possible”.

The scandal, which broke in 2022, centred around allegations that organised crime was allegedly involved in influencing European Parliament officials - and at least one MEP - to be favourable to Qatar in the run up to its hosting the World Cup.

The scandal, Ms O’Reilly said, undermined the reputation of the European Parliament in the eyes of EU citizens.

“Ahead of the European elections (in June), the Parliament must now show that it is doing everything in its power to protect its integrity and credibility,” she said. “The new stronger ethics rules are a good starting point but the rules are only as good as their implementation and enforcement.

“My aim is to encourage the Parliament to continue the process of reform needed to ensure a strong ethical culture and an enforcement regime worthy of citizens’ trust.” 

First reported in December 2022, the Qatargate scandal involves allegations that non-EU countries tried to buy influence in the Parliament.

In January 2023, the Ombudsman asked the Parliament for more information on how it intended to reform its ethics and transparency framework in the wake of this scandal.

Ms O’Reilly also later provided input on the 14-point proposal for reform presented by the Parliament’s President, Roberta Metsola.

The Parliament adopted several changes including to its Rules of Procedure and to Members’ Code of Conduct in September 2023.

These changes strengthened the rules around the transparency of MEPs’ declarations of private interests, conflicts of interests, and declarations of meetings with interest representatives.

There is also now a six-month cooling-off period for former MEPs and a new ‘transparency webpage’ on the parliament’s website.

While proposals on ethics reform after Qatargate resulted in a number of reforms, the Ombudsman said that the basic framework for the regulation of ethical misconduct by Members is unchanged. “Interpretation and enforcement of the Code of Conduct will remain a matter for members,” she said.

While “significant progress” had been made in strengthening ethics rules, she said “concerns remain about their implementation and enforcement”.

She added: “A credible ethics framework requires adequate resources, rigorous implementation and strong enforcement but it is not yet clear that these elements are in place.

“The Ombudsman urges Parliament to put them in place as quickly as possible to reassure the European public ahead of June's elections.

“As the self-regulation model remains largely intact, citizens need to be confident that it can work."

She said it is not clear how Parliament will monitor and enforce the new rules, such as the post-mandate cooling-off period for MEPs and the obligation to register meetings with lobbyists.

“Although the committee that monitors MEPs’ compliance with the Code of Conduct has been given a more proactive role, certain details remain unclear including how in practice the committee will receive and act on ‘signals’ concerning alleged wrongdoing by MEPs.” 

In what was a scathing assessment of progress on the reforms, she said she noted the “inadequate transparency of the reform process itself”.

She added: “In future, the public should be able to scrutinise internal decisions of significant public interest.”