Roberta Metsola launched a ten -point plan supposed to restore credibility to parliament and fill the deficiencies highlighted by the survey of Belgian justice.
class = “Caption”> by Virginie Malingre (Brussels, European Bureau) and Jean-Pierre Stroobants (Brussels, European office)
The European Heads of State and Government, gathered in Brussels on Thursday, December 15, listened at length to the explanations of Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, about “Qatargate” – the attempts of the emirate of influence the decisions of the European Union -, which destabilizes its institution. “A dozen of them expressed itself,” says a witness. A silence was noticed: that of the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban who, however, a lot mocked the setbacks of the Parliament – which had adopted, in September, a resolution concluding that his country is no longer a democracy.
M me Metsola launched a ten -point plan supposed to restore credibility to parliament and fill the many deficiencies highlighted by the survey of Belgian justice, who relied on a long work of intelligence services. The Maltese manager spoke of a “package of magnitude reforms that will be ready at the beginning of next year”.
The president intends in particular to revise the registration on the transparency register which obliges to declare all the meetings of elected officials with external persons – and whose rules are manifestly too loose. It also wishes to control access to the assembly of former members of it. They currently have a kind of free access.
More generally, it would be a question of reviewing the rules for “people authorized to enter the European Parliament”, also the 49,000 lobbyists and the representatives of 12,500 organizations which gravitate in Brussels. Representatives of the states received by deputies, who must not currently mention these visits, would also be targeted. 2>
structures “manipulated”
M Me Metsola also declared his desire to ban unofficial friendship groups with third countries. Elected officials can create such structures, which are in no way supervised and do not account. The European Union (EU)-qatar friendship group is therefore not listed on the European Parliament site, but its composition is, on the other hand, mentioned on that of the Emirate Embassy in Brussels. It was dormant since the scandal broke out, according to the wish of its president, the Spanish MEP José Ramon Bauza (Renew, Liberal) who was in Qatar last week.
During a closed -door meeting of the European People’s Party (PPE, Curator) who preceded the summit, M Me Metsola delivered other details to his colleagues. In a more alarmist tone, she said, for example, that the problems raised were “systemic” and that certain structures within the Assembly were “manipulated”. The president also revealed that she had refused an invitation from Qatar to the World Cup. “Because I have concerns about this country,” she said.
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