Euro MPs slate plan to publicise interests

Date: 06/06/1996

By Rory Watson

PROPOSED new rules to be voted on by the Parliament next month would prevent MEPs from receiving gifts in the course of their parliamentary duties and force them to declare any financial or material support they receive from outside organisations.

The proposed requirements are designed to shed more light on Euro MPs' activities. They are part of a twin policy to increase the amount of information elected representatives must disclose to the public and establish a clear code of conduct for lobbyists seeking regular access to the Parliament.

But the plans, which were approved by the Parliament's rules committee last week, are already running into criticism from MEPs who believe they go too far and others who argue they do not go far enough.

“If you compare what already exists with what extra is now being proposed, then there is not a big difference. It is much ado about nothing,” complains Belgian Green MEP Magda Aelvoet.

Arguments over the treatment of parliamentarians' assets were a major factor behind the postponement of a decision on the members' interests report prepared by French Liberal MEP Jean-Thomas Nordmann in January.

To avoid a second setback, Euro MPs are being asked to back a proposal stipulating that national rules should apply on declarations of assets.

Aelvoet dismisses the suggestion as worthless, pointing out that the requirement currently exists only in Belgium and is being introduced in France.

But while Green MEPs will press for tighter rules when the proposal is debated by the full Parliament next month, many Christian Democrats fear they go too far and are especially critical of the blanket ban on gifts or benefits from outsiders.

“It would be very difficult for Christian Democrats as a whole to support the proposal in its present form unless the problem over gifts is sorted out,” warned UK Conservative MEP Brendan Donnelly.

He and his colleagues want the text to spell out that small gifts such as calendars or meals would not be covered by the ban. Otherwise, he said, “we fear at some point people will say you are breaking the rules”.

To be adopted, Nordmann's report must win the backing of at least half the Parliament's 626 MEPs, and the stance taken by the Christian Democrats could be a crucial factor in determining its fate.

British Socialist MEP Glyn Ford believes the recommendations contained in the Nordmann report would tighten up existing rules and could ease the passage of his own report on lobbyists which will be examined by the rules committee next week.