EU Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly 'a little cynical' of EU Parliament reaction to corruption scandal

Police in Belgium have seized €600,000 in cash and detained an MEP as part of an international investigation into claims that Qatar sought to buy influence

EU Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly

EU Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly has called for an urgent overhaul of the ethics system in the EU Parliament in the wake of the corruption scandal which has unfolded in recent days.

Police in Belgium have seized €600,000 in cash and detained an MEP as part of an international investigation into claims that football World Cup host Qatar sought to buy influence.

Four unnamed people were charged on Sunday with participation in a criminal organisation, money laundering and corruption following several arrests and searches of houses over the weekend, including the properties of two MEPs and a former MEP’s family in Italy.

Ms O'Reilly, in an interview with Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1, said that the reaction to the scandal was somewhat "predictable."

There is nothing like a scandal to have everybody promising to be good in future and to put in place all sorts of things in order to make things better.

"President von der Leyen,  the President of the Commission, and others came out again supporting an independent ethics body. This was something that was first promised by Commissioner von der Leyen when she was campaigning to become President of the Commission in 2019 and very little has happened since then.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin welcomes President von der Leyen during her visit to Ireland in 2021.

"The Parliament did put through a resolution and a proposal in relation to that which has to be accepted by the Council and Commission. But so far there is little appetite to do so. One does become a little cynical when one hears these promises being made again."

Ms O'Reilly says at a point of time when the Parliament could have seen these proposals through "they didn't." She says that the European system has a failed our non-functioning ethics system because "people don't want it to be upgraded or overhauled."

"The EU can respond very rapidly to things that it wants to do as we have seen with the Covid crisis and other crises that have emerged. When it comes to something like this it can certainly drag its feet."

Self-policing

"The main problem is that it is essentially self-policing. There is a body that advises the President in relation to possible breaches of the code of conduct of MEPs that can only advise and then it is up to the President to decide whether she accepts the advice or not, and if she does decide that it is a breach what sanction, if any, to impose.

"President von der Leyen again yesterday was talking about their own ethics body. But that is also relatively toothless because it has to wait for an instruction or a request from the Commission in order to open an investigation. It has no own initiative powers."

Ms O'Reilly said when Commission President von der Leyen was campaigning for the Presidency she made promises which "so far haven't been delivered."

"You have to put under the spotlight a lot of the claims and the lamenting that took place yesterday after this latest scandal.

In my experience as a political journalist and as Ombudsman in Ireland and here I know things change only when there are political champions for change and when there is a scandal so perhaps there are genuine political champions emerging. 

"We will see what happens when the political furore surrounding this dies down. Certainly there is a scandal and promises are being made. It was described yesterday as an 'attack on democracy' but you know the same language is also used in relation to cyberattacks and they are very quick to fix those. 

"That is not done in relation to these ethical matters."

Emily O’Reilly was first elected as the European Ombudsman in July 2013. Following the European Parliament elections, she was re-elected for a five-year mandate in December 2014 and again in December 2019.

Previously, she had been Ireland's first female Ombudsman and Information Commissioner, having been appointed in 2003, and Commissioner for Environmental Information from 2007.