Codes of Conduct in National Parliaments: Transparency

As elected representatives of their voters, politicians are supposed to act as role models in fulfilling their tasks as policy-makers. However, scandals demonstrating a lack of integrity on the part of politicians diminish public trust in them. This was certainly the case, for example, when three members of the European Parliament were shown to be willing to propose law amendments for money in March 2011.

To restore and enhance public trust, the European Parliament and most national parliaments have introduced or expanded codes of conduct. These codes mostly tackle questions regarding their members, but often also cover parliamentary officials (staff) and lobbyists.

As far as members of parliament are concerned, the principles of the codes deal with topics ranging from ineligibility to incompatibility, independence, transparency and fighting fraud and corruption, as well as sanctions.