Corruption, transparency: files to keep an eye on in the next EU Parliament

6 months ago 22

The next European Parliament will need to negotiate with EU countries two key files which aim to harmonise corruption offences and transparency requirements for foreign-funded organisations, both proposed after a string of corruption cases, like Qatargate, shook the outgoing legislature.

The European Commission unveiled in December 2023 a new directive designed to demand interest and lobbying groups funded by non-EU state actors to register on a transparency register as part of its ‘Defence of Democracy’ package.

This directive, alongside the combatting corruption bill, was proposed as a response to Qatargate, a cash-for-influence scandal that rocked Brussels in December 2022.

It aims to harmonise transparency registers at the national level and mandates member states to set up a dedicated overseeing authority that controls the application of standardised requirements.

While the proposal is already being discussed by member states at the technical level, the Parliament will only resume discussions likely after June’s elections, possibly in September, when all committees are reassembled and can continue legislative work.

The file was discussed in Parliament’s internal market (IMCO) committee in early April, and the assigned rapporteur is Pablo Arias Echevverría (Partido Popular/EPP), but progress is now frozen as the Parliament closed business in its last plenary in April until the autumn.

With foreign interference at the top of the EU’s agenda, the Parliament and Council are expected to try to boost its adoption, but the law has already received heavy backlash from civil society.

First scheduled for the second quarter of 2023, the proposal was delayed several times after backlash from NGOs, which said the bill could have “unintended negative consequences, hindering civil society organisations’ ability to fulfil their role as defenders of democracy in Europe and beyond,” a letter from several stakeholders said in May 2023.

NGOs and civil society are now warning the Parliament and Council to make sure there are safeguards to prevent the law from being used to stigmatise specific organisations, such as NGOs dealing with migrants.

“The EU is singling out here organisations that receive foreign funding, so this immediately has a chilling effect and a stigmatizing effect on these groups,” Human Rights Watch Advocacy Director for Europe and Central Asia Iskra Kirova told Euractiv.

In the next term, the Parliament will also need to reach an agreement with EU countries on the sensitive Combatting Corruption Directive, presented by the Commission in May 2023.

The directive seeks to harmonise criminal offences and sanctions for corruption, especially in cross-border cases, and measures to enhance prevention, including establishing independent specialised bodies at the EU level.

The Parliament’s negotiating mandate was ratified in February 2024, having amended the Commission’s proposals to broaden the list of individuals considered persons of interest to encompass any person “in charge of public service,” and demanding that member states regularly review national strategies, as well as a more detailed sanctions regime.

While Transparency International has praised the Parliament’s ambitious position, it remains to be seen whether EU countries will accept the standardisation of sanctions for corruption and crime definitions at the EU level.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]