It took over two decades and several high-profile ethical scandals, including the shocking Qatargate, for the main EU institutions to finally agree on the establishment of a joint authority to ensure the public integrity of its members. This authority – the Interinstitutional Body for Ethical Standards – aims to “strengthen trust in Union institutions and their democratic legitimacy”. Nevertheless, a year later, this ethics body is nowhere to be found, largely blocked by the reluctance of the largest EU political group in the EU Parliament – the EPP – and hard-right factions (the ECR, Patriots and Sovereigntists).
Very few would have noticed if it were not for yet another public integrity scandal shaking the EU Parliament. This time it is not a third country, but a third-country company – the Chinese tech giant Huawei – that is suspected to have bribed some Members of the EU Parliament and their assistants to advance its commercial interests in the EU.
Contrary to Qatargate, which involved direct cash payments to MEPs, Belgian prosecutors (who have been investigating since 2021) accuse Huawei of more mundane – and fairly conventional – lobbying practices. These include free football tickets, lavish gifts, and even all-expenses-paid trips to China in exchange for favourable treatment. To the extent that all of these types of conduct are governed (and constrained) by existing EU ethical standards applicable to the EU Parliament and its Members, the unfolding scandal provides tangible proof of the inadequacy of the Parliament’s ethical framework, notwithstanding the much-acclaimed post-Qatargate reforms.
As such, this latest debacle exposes the EU Parliament’s significant and ongoing failure to correct two structural flaws in the EU public integrity framework: the contested nature of the ethical standards imposed on MEPs and the lack of an independent authority to enforce them.
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