In an unprecedented move, the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee (CONT) voted down Parliament’s discharge report, blocking it from being voted on in plenary. This is because the MEP responsible for the report, the EPP’s Monika Hohlmeier, allowed for the adoption of an amendment calling for the Parliament to refuse funding to the newly established Ethics Body until internal changes to Parliament’s own rules were adopted. This amendment contradicts Article 17 of the Interinstitutional Agreement on the Ethics Body, to which the Parliament is party: the Agreement stipulates that all participating institutions should share the costs of the Body.
The move to vote down the report, led by the Green/EFA group in the European Parliament, was the correct and responsible reaction towards a fiscally irresponsible attempt on part of the CONT Committee to shirk paying its own bills. Given the toxic rhetoric attacking civil society organisations that has emanated from the Committee in recent weeks, the move to reject this report is a welcome one.
Shari Hinds, Policy Officer for EU Political Integrity at Transparency International EU, said:
“Today’s principled rejection of the Parliament discharge report recognises that MEPs must honour their institutional commitments. Voting down the report’s attempt to backtrack on Parliament’s own financial commitments to ethics was right. In the wake of this vote, Parliament must now properly engage with the Ethics Body so it can finally start its work.”
Note to the editor:
As part of a process known as the Discharge Procedure, Parliament usually adopts a resolution that outlines its comments on how the EU budget has been implemented for each institution, in a procedure known as discharge.
The discharge resolutions for other institutions were voted on in CONT today. The Commission’s resolution is scheduled for a vote in CONT next month. The discharge resolutions for the remaining institutions are expected to be voted on in Plenary in May. However, due to today’s rejection in committee, the Parliament’s discharge resolution will not reach plenary this year.
