The quest for ethics in Brussels and putting EU’s watchdogs in the spotlight
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Read the latest news about our investigations into the European Union and get tips for further reading, viewing, and listening.
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In this edition:
Follow the Money featured in ARTE documentary + save the date!
As loyal readers of Follow the Money can testify, we put a lot of time and effort in pointing out any sorts of wrongdoings at EU level. And not only the wrongdoings themselves, but also the issues with the checks and balances underlying these: We feel that any form of democratic government deserves proper watchdogs that have sufficiently sharp teeth to hold those in power accountable. That’s also the key message of the documentary that the German broadcaster ARTE has produced about the aftermath of the bribery scandal Qatargate – it’s super well produced! But let’s be honest: we also like it because we’re in it ourselves. And because it's the perfect run-up to the book that we’ll publish in the beginning of May addressing the exact same issues: Brussels out of Control. We’ll keep you posted on that, as we’re also setting up a very special book launch event in the early evening of the 13th of May in Brussels. So save the date! And for now, enjoy the documentary.
Lise Witteman
Europe's chief prosecutor breaks boundaries
Speaking of watchdogs: at the age of 33, Laura K?vesi became Romania's first female attorney general, against the advice of her male colleagues. She fought against corruption at the highest levels of politics. A few years later, in 2021, she took charge of the European Public Prosecutor's Office, a new institution that fights corruption and fraud at EU level. And in this position too, K?vesi is breaking boundaries. For example, last year she wrote that the Commission was only aware of a fraction of the fraud surrounding the EU budget.
In an interview with Follow the Money , the European chief prosecutor says that her new job has already cost her 'a lot of friends'. She is also calling for more resources to fight organised crime gangs. They are increasingly turning to VAT fraud, because it poses fewer risks than drug crime.
Simon Van Dorpe
领英推荐
Nerd alert: win a free book
Daniel Guéguen has more than four decades experience as a lobbyist in Brussels. It seems unlikely he would have lasted that long if he had not been assertive. And assertive he is.
When I interviewed him for an article published last January, he proposed to send a copy of his book European Lobbyists: NGOs vs. Industries (2023). He later followed up with an e-mail, and a PDF copy. "Feel free to review it," he wrote.
I'm afraid I won't be doing a full book review here, because I'm not convinced the book is suitable for a mass audience. While the topics Guéguen discusses are interesting, the book is so full of Brussels jargon that it’s a tough read for the uninitiated. Even when he’s not discussing the complexity of comitology , he refers to "the pitiful Sofagate incident in Ankara", without explaining what it was .
However, Guéguen does provide interesting anecdotes, which EU nerds will appreciate. He describes how in 2012 the European Commission was able to change the voting distribution in its favour by holding a committee meeting on a day when some member state delegations were absent because of national public holidays.
If you want to know how that happened, but don't want to commit to buying the book, Guéguen actually offered a loophole. He told me to "feel free to circulate the PDF".
So if you are interested in reading a PDF version of Guéguen's book, send me an e-mail. The first five submissions to tell me why the word comitology does not scare them will receive a digital copy.
Peter Teffer
Shared ethical standards in EU institutions (?)
“And the saga continues,” the European Ombudsman said dryly during a press conference last week where, among other things, the EU Ethics Body was discussed. Emily O'Reilly, who says she is a loyal reader of FTM.eu , isn’t pleased with the effectiveness of this planned standard-setting body and is following the negotiations in the European Parliament with suspicion.
The EU Ethics Body must guarantee that all European institutions apply the same level of transparency and integrity in their own organisations. Despite intense internal debate about the effectiveness of this new body, the seven EU institutions that are part of the common ethical agreements have managed to reach a provisional agreement.
In the Parliament, the party leaders of the Social Democrats and the Greens believe that the Commission has submitted too weak a proposal and are trying to give the new body more powers, while the EPP – the party of European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, from who the draft originated - and the extreme right are trying their best to keep it as toothless as possible.
The proposed budget is also very limited at 800,000 euros per year. By comparison: the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) and the anti-fraud office (OLAF) both have an annual budget of more than 60 million euros. However, it is expected that critical MEPs will back the current proposal in April , in the hope that they will be able to secure a stronger mandate and a larger budget in the future.
Is this the start of concrete reforms, or a new example of European gesture politics? At the beginning of this year, my colleagues Bart de Koning and Lise Witteman interviewed Nick Aoissa from Transparency International about ethics in Parliament. (Re)read it here.
Alistair Keepe