Monitoring Desk
STRASBOURG: The European Parliament is flexing muscles to stop former members from lobbying legislators for six months after leaving office, in response to a bribery scandal that has rocked the European Union.
Sources from the EU Parliament said the plan was agreed upon by senior former members on Monday as part of the legislature’s bid to control possible corruption.
The move comes as the EU parliament grapples with the fallout from the scandal involving the alleged bribery of some members said to have been paid to support the interests of non-European countries.
Central to the major criminal case is former Italian MEP (Member European Parliament) Antonio Panzeri, who has admitted playing a major role in funnelling cash to parliamentarians.
Under the proposals, expected to be finalized next month, former MEPs would be stopped from lobbying in parliament for a period of six months after their tenure ends.
Former lawmakers who wanted to conduct lobbying activities would then lose the automatic right to a pass to access the parliament granted to ex-lawmakers.
They would need to apply for a specific pass after putting their names in the transparency register of the parliament.
German MEP Daniel Freund expressed that the new rules would not prohibit former MEPs from taking up lobbying jobs in general.
Access of Ex-members to EU Parliament
However, he said, they would, “make access to the parliament more difficult during a transitional period when the risk of conflicts of interest is large”.
The scandal appeared in December last year when Belgian police raided addresses in Brussels, detaining a lawmaker and finding more than 1.5 million euros ($1.6 million) in cash.
The parliament has already vowed a raft of reforms to stop foreign influence.
The non-European countries have involvement in the scandal.
