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EU Ethics Body: EU Commission proposes the creation of common ethics standards for all EU institutions

Jun 8, 2023 ,
Brussels, 8 June 2023

The European Commission has adopted a proposal for the creation of an interinstitutional Ethics Body, covering members of EU institutions, as announced at the beginning of the mandate by Presidentvon der Leyen, and following informal consultations with the other institutions. With the establishment of the Ethics Body there will, for the first time, be common standards for ethical conduct of members and a formal mechanism for coordination and exchange of views on ethical requirements among institutions. Thanks to these changes, EU politicians will be subject to common, clear, transparent and comprehensible standards.

The standards will relate to several fields:

  • acceptance of gifts, hospitality and travel offered by third parties:standards will also apply to the acceptance of awards, decorations, prizes or honours.
  • conditionality and transparency measures, in particular for meetings with interest representatives:the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council already have common standards as regards meetings with interest representatives and their publication thanks to the Transparency Register. Standards will be expanded to include, for example, access to institutions’ premises.
  • interests and assetsto be declared, establishing the categories, as well as the procedures applied to check these declarations.
  • side or external activities, in order to ensure that members’ availability and independence is not compromised.
  • post-mandate activities of former members, establishing conditions, and transparency requirements.
  • implementation of the common framework, including on monitoring compliance and follow-up, also as regards possible cases of harassment and sanctions, in case of breaches within each institution.
  • on the publicity of information: each institution will need to make public how they apply the standards.

While the Treaties lay down the general rules and principles of conduct, most institutions have detailed them in their own rules of procedure or Codes of Conduct. This has resulted in fragmentation among the institutions’ ethical frameworks, with rules being complex and scattered. While some differences can be explained by the different roles of each institution and by the different risks inherent to different duties, it has become clear that a common culture of ethics, through common high standards and cooperation among institutions, is needed. Once adopted, the Ethics Body will fill this gap by providing common and clear ethical standards for EU institutions.

The new Body will have three main tasks:

  • Develop common minimum standards– explained above – applicable to the members of participating EU Institutions and bodies, as well as updating them when needed. They will serve as a minimum baseline, and each institution remains free to apply even stricter internal rules, but the standards cannot be used to lower existing rules.
  • Exchange of views on each institution’s internal rules in light of the standards to allow them to learn and benefit from each other’s experience.
  • Promote a common ethics culture of all members of EU institutions, facilitating the public understanding of the framework both to those inside and outside the institutions. Transparency will apply also to the application of these rules in the institutions.

All this will be done in a manner that is transparent and accessible to the public. Other Unionbodies, offices and agencies will have the possibility to voluntarily apply the entire set of common standards and participate in exchanges of views.

The new ethics body will not deal with individual investigations, it will neither interfere with, or limit in any way, the investigations of well-established existing bodies. Under the treaties, this is the responsibility of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) as well as national police and judicial authorities, for criminal cases affecting Union’s financial interests. It is the responsibility of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) for irregularities and breaches of professional duties, of the Ombudsman for cases of maladministration and of each institution when it comes to any breach of their respective rules.

Next steps

The Commission will invite all the institutions and advisory bodies to a meeting on 3 July in Brussels to start the interinstitutional dialogue and negotiations.

The Commission has adopted the present proposal for an agreement between the institutions and the two advisory bodies mentioned in Article 13 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU).

This proposal will accordingly be transmitted to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank, the European Court of Auditors, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Upon its request, the European Investment Bank or other bodies may also become a Party to this Agreement after it enters into force

Background

Robust ethics and transparency frameworks are an essential part of good governance and contribute to preventing corruption and undue interference into the democratic process, among others. Today’s proposal is part of the Commission’s broader set of actions to foster integrity and defend the Union’s democratic system and the rule of law.

President von der Leyen supported the creation of an interinstitutional ethics body in her Political Guidelines. In its resolution of 16 September 2021, the European Parliament underlined that ‘a single independent EU ethics body could better ensure the consistent and full implementation of ethics standards across the EU institutions to guarantee that public decisions are taken with a view to the common good and citizens’ trust in the EU institutions’.

The Ethics Body is coherent with the Commission’s action on rule of law, democracy and transparency, together with other initiatives such as the anti-corruption package presented on 3 May, the upcoming defence of democracy package, and the interinstitutional agreement on a mandatory transparency register concluded between Parliament, Council and Commission in May 2021.

The European Treaties laid down the principles and rules for ensuring the proper conduct of the members of the institutions with regard to independence and integrity.

For more information

Proposal for the creation of an interinstitutional Ethics Body

Questions and Answers

Factsheet

Website:Ethics and integrity for Members of the European Commission

Quotes

Democracy can thrive only if citizens trust their institutions. People around Europe do not distinguish whether a scandal has originated in one or the other institution. Therefore, if we want to remain credible in their eyes we need all to be subject to common ethical standards. The very serious allegations that emerged over the past few months made me use the opportunity to do something right when things go wrong. Therefore, I call on our partners in the European Parliament, the Council and the other institutions to swiftly support the proposal for an Ethics Body. We need to develop and apply common clear, comprehensible and transparent standards for all the European institutions.

Věra Jourová, Vice-President for Values and Transparency – 08/06/2023

 

Brussels, 8 June 2023
The European Commission has adopted a proposal for the creation of an interinstitutional Ethics Body, intended to cover members of all EU institutions and advisory bodies.

The establishment of the Ethics Body will, for the first time, lead tocommon standardsfor ethical conduct of the members of EU institutions and aformal mechanism for coordination and exchange of views.

  1. Why is this proposal needed?

Ensuring that the integrity of the EU institutions and its members is beyond reproach must be a priority for all institutions. Joint action is necessary in developing a common culture of ethics and transparency across institutions. The creation of an interinstitutional Ethics Body is a fundamental step in this direction.

The Body willl be a powerful tool to create a common culture of institutional, professional ethics for the members of all EU institutions (Commissioners, members of the European Parliament, President of the European Council, members of the Court of Auditors and the Court of Justice, the European Central Bank’s Executive Board, members of the Committee of the Regions and of the European Economic and Social Committee). For the first time, the Body will set common, clear and transparent standards for the ethical conduct of members of all EU institutions, as well as create a space for the institutions to exchange and share their experiences on this matter.

  1. How is the body composed?

The Ethics Body will be composed of:

– A Chair and an alternate, rotating annually among the members from the participating institutions;

–Members from the participating institutions: one designated representative and one alternate, for a maximum of five years;

– Five independent experts, orobservers,appointed by the parties, for a duration of three years, in consideration of their competences, experience in high-level functions, independence and professional qualities;

– The members of the Body will be supported by asecretariat, formally hosted in the Commission. It shall be made up of those responsible for ethics for members in each participating institution.

  1. What will the Ethics Body do? When will the common standards materialise?

The Commission will invite all participating institutions to a first political meeting on 3 July.

Following today’s proposal, the interinstitutional agreement should be reached as soon as possible, after which the members of the Body, as well as the independent experts, will be appointed. They will begin their work to develop common standards, and after that launch the process of self-assessment by the participating institutions.

The standards must be developed within six months of the Body starting its functions.

  1. Will the Body have enforcement powers?

No. Enforcement powers are attributed by the Treaties to specific institutions, notably to the Court of Justice of the EU as an independent court. There is no legal basis in the Treaties for establishing such a Body with enforcement powers.

Besides, the Body should not duplicate or overlap in any way with the functions and powers of the national and European investigative and prosecutorial authorities, such as the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO).

  1. Will the Body be competent to investigate wrongdoing or cases related to criminal responsibility?

No, to confer investigative powers to the Ethics Body on the members of the institutions would impact the existing institutional balance set out in the Treaties, and create duplications and overlaps with existing bodies.

There is already a well-established and sound legal framework in place, which confers investigative powers at EU level onto existing bodies:

  • the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) can investigate serious breaches of professional duties by members of the institutions;
  • the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) and the competent national authorities can investigate suspected criminal offences against financial interests of the EU committed by members;
  •  The European Ombudsman can investigate maladministration in all EU institutions.

On the other hand, the role of the Ethics Body is to develop common standards for the EU institutions, including on the setting up of control mechanisms in the institutions, where suspicions of a breach of the respective rules may be reported to the institution concerned.

  1. What is the point of this proposal, if the institutions and bodies already have their own rules and principles in place?

Institutions of the EU have rules which regulate the individual ethical obligations applicable to their Members (Treaty provisions, Codes of Conduct or similar instruments). They take into account the differences between the institutions regarding their mission, purpose and duties, and are directly based on provisions of the Treaties.

However, not all differences can be explained by the autonomous role of each institution and their members. All members work in full independence for the general interest of the EU and its citizens and must ensure integrity and transparency in their behaviour. Therefore, a joint effort of all EU institutions to develop a common culture of ethics and transparency and a common set of ethical standards is necessary.

The Ethics Body will allow developing common minimum standards with respect to the conduct of members of all institutions. It will offer, for the first time, a possibility for all institutions to address the issue of ethics and integrity of their members as a matter of common interinstitutional interest.

The Body will help foster the citizens’ trust in the EU institutions, reduce discrepancies among the institutions’ standards, clarify what is expected of the EU institutions’ members, and encourage mutual learning and experience sharing. This will help make the EU more coherent, transparent and accountable.

  1. How will coherence among the institutions be ensured based on basic standards?

The Ethics Body will ensure that there is coherence across the board on the areas that are applicable to all, irrespective of the particularities of their function (for example, on the acceptance of gifts from third parties).

However, the role and tasks of members of different institutions are not identical, and they come with different challenges which need to be addressed.

This is why the Commission is proposing the creation of one clear set of standards for all, striking a balance between the need for common principles for the members of all EU institutions and bodies, and allowing for position-specific rules that tackle the specific risks faced by each institution.

  1. Is this not duplicating the recent anti-corruption proposals presented by the Commission?

The proposal of establishing an interinstitutional Ethics Body is coherent with the anti-corruption package that the Commission adopted in May 2023.

Within the EU institutions, there is a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption, both for staff in the administration and for the members.

Any allegation of corruption must be immediately reported either to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) or the national authorities, investigated and brought to justice.

The interinstitutional Ethics Body will in no way interfere with the investigative powers of these organs. There will be no overlap or duplication of missions between the Body and the EU entities entrusted with investigative powers. Corruption is a criminal offence, and the Body will not deal with issues subject to criminal law.

  1. What are the next steps and when will the proposal be adopted?

An interinstitutional agreement must now be found with the other institutions, and then adopted by all of them in accordance with their own decision-making processes.

The Commission will invite all institutions and advisory bodies to a political kick-off meeting on 3 July to start the dialogue and the negotiations. From that point onwards, it will be for the EU institutions to reach an agreement on the Commission’s proposal.

For More Information

Proposal for the creation of an interinstitutional Ethics Body

Press release

Factsheet

Website: Ethics and integrity for Members of the European Commission

 

Source – EU Commission

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