As a result of the corruption scandal, the EU Parliament wants to implement reforms quickly to achieve more transparency and stricter lobbying rules. “Our aim is to act quickly,” European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said today after a meeting with the leaders of the parliamentary groups. She spoke of the first steps of a more comprehensive reform process.
A parliamentary spokesman said the Conference of Group Presidents fully supported Metsola’s reform proposals. The President must now push the job on him.
Metsola’s reform proposals include stricter rules for former MPs who want to lobby the European Parliament. In the future, all meetings of Members with third parties relating to a report or resolution must also be made public. Discredited friendship groups with third countries, in which MPs maintain informal relations with certain countries, will be banned.
A corruption scandal rocked parliament in December. The Belgian judiciary has charged the now ousted vice-president Eva Kaili and other suspects with involvement in a criminal organization, money laundering and corruption. This is supposed influence from abroad in political decisions.