Emily O'Reilly: Scandal should prompt overhaul of EU anti-corruption framework

Any new EU ethics body, must have real powers, and must have a mandate over not only MEPs and Commissioners, but also over national ministers and ambassadors who wield the most significant but often most opaque power in Brussels.

 Greek politician and European Parliament Vice-President Eva Kaili, right, speaks during the European Book Prize award ceremony in Brussels. Kaili  and three others were charged in connection with an investigation into suspected corruption linked to Qatar.

The corruption scandal engulfing the European Parliament is an example — albeit an extreme one — of what happens when a strong anti-corruption and ethics system is seen as an optional extra rather than an integral part of a public institution.

The damage it is doing to the credibility of the European Parliament, and to the institutional EU more widely, is immense.