The European Parliament’s special committee on foreign interference has presented numerous recommendations to strengthen the “transparency” and “integrity” of the institution, which has been rocked by corruption allegations involving Qatar and Morocco, AFP reports.

Deputies of the European Parliament approved this transparent report with a significant majority (441 votes for, 70 against and 71 abstentions), which has no binding legal force.

The adoption of this final report marks the end of a special commission created in 2020 to fight disinformation and foreign interference, but whose mission has taken on a new dimension thanks to an anti-corruption investigation in Brussels involving several MEPs.

Raphael Glucksmann (S&D, left), chairman of the special committee, asked that the work be continued under the standing committee.

The final report sets out a “new approach to security issues” for parliament and European institutions, a French MEP told the press.

“For a very long time, European institutions were naive and weak. This report is an important step towards building a stronger EU,” he said.

Property reports and financial statements

In particular, the special commission recommends greater transparency for MPs by introducing a property declaration at the beginning and end of their term of office, creating a register with information on visits by elected officials and their offices, as well as an obligation to provide the names of third parties that finance their travel, said Natalie Loiseau (Renew, Liberals), co-sponsor of the text.

She also called for “greater security to protect the work of MEPs”.

She lamented that security “has been a dirty word in this parliament for years.” “We were supposed to be an open institution, but we became an institution open to malicious intrusions.”

The special commission asked the European executive in Brussels to accept these recommendations and make them binding.

Upon taking office as President of the European Commission in 2019, Ursula von der Leyen announced her intention to create an “independent ethics body” responsible for monitoring the “transparency and integrity” of European institutions, but this body has yet to be seen. daylight.

“We are very impatient,” concluded Raphael Glucksmann. “Defending democracy cannot wait.”