Changes between two versions
What changed between the plenary report and the adopted text
From · plenary report· 22 Apr 2024
on the conclusion of an Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council, the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank, the European Court of Auditors, the European Economic and Social Committee and the European Committee of the Regions, establishing an Interinstitutional Body for Ethical Standards for Members of Institutions and advisory bodies mentioned in Article 13 of the Treaty on European Union
Changes to the text itself, in document order. Cover page, citations and punctuation-only edits are left out; they are under “Every difference”.
The changes · 10
Change 1
Changed:E. whereas Parliament’s resolutions of 16 February 2023 on the establishment of an independent EU ethics body and on following up on measures requested by Parliament to strengthen the integrity of the European institutions and of 12 July 2023 on the establishment of the EU ethics body served as the Parliament’s negotiating mandate;
Change 2
Changed:G. whereas Parliament’s current ethical rules in its Rules of procedure provide for many standardised written declarations including declarations of private interests, declarations of assets, declarations on awareness of conflict of interests for office holders, rapporteurs, shadow-rapporteurs and participants in an official delegation or interinstitutional negotiations, declarations of scheduled meetings with interest representatives, also when delegated to their assistants, declarations of input by the rapporteurs on their files, declarations of attendance at events organised by third parties, declarations of gifts and declarations of intergroups or informalunofficial groupings on external financial support;
Change 3
Changed:3. Reiterates, however, that Parliament remains fully committed to an independent ethics body, capable of carrying out investigations on its own initiative and issuing recommendations for sanctions to the responsible authorities of the participating institutions or bodies, composed of independent experts as full members, that covers Members of EU institutions and bodies before, during and after their term of office or service as well as staff, as envisaged in Parliament’s resolution of 16 September 2021 on strengthening transparency and integrity in the EU institutions by setting up an independent EU ethics body and reiterated in its resolutions of 16 February 2023 on the establishment of an independent EU ethics body and of 12 July 2023 on the establishment of the EU ethics body;2023;
Change 4
Changed:6. Takes the view that the resources made available must enable the proper functioning of both the actualinterinstitutional body for ethical standards (the ‘Body’) itself composed of one representative of each party to the Agreement and the five independent experts assisting the institutional representatives and joining the bodyBody as observers, as well as any necessary support therefor; regrets that according to Article 17 of the Agreement, any cost resulting from a consultation of the independent experts is to be covered by the requesting party, as this might result in a limitation of the number of such consultations;
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Change 5
Changed:7. Is of the opinion that the independent experts, whichwho shallare to be appointed by consensus of the parties to the Agreement, shallneed to have professional experience specifically in the areas of ethics, integrity and transparency, in addition to the requirements outlined in Article 5(2) of the Agreement referring to an impeccable record of professional behaviour and experience in high-level functions in European, national, or international public organisations;
Change 6
Changed:9. Believes the bodyBody should rely on the existing powers of institutions to ask their members for information or on the agreement of national authorities to share information; believes that the independent experts should be able to exchange information with national authorities where necessary for the performance of their tasks, while treating such information with the same confidentiality as the originating authority did; stresses in this regard that the independent experts should have access to the administrative documents of participating parties, especially the party consulting them on a case, in order to allow them to carry out well-reasoned and well-documented assessments;
Change 7
Changed:11. Believes that the reasoned recommendation of the independent experts, without prejudice to the General Data Protection Regulation and personal rights, should be made public by the institution or advisory body, together with the decision of the competent authority who should provide an explanation if the recommendations are not fully followed;
Change 8
Changed:12. Calls for the interinstitutional ethics bodyBody to lead by example on transparency by publishing all recommendations, annual reports, decisions and records of spending in a machine-readable open data format available to all citizens, and in accordance with the applicable data protection rules, including, inter alia, the written opinion of the independent experts on the institutions’ self-assessments in accordance with Article 10 of the Agreement and the anonymised and aggregated annual account of every year which summarises in aggregated and anonymised form the consultations and questions submitted by the parties and actions to follow them up in accordance with Article 7(4);7(4) of the Agreement; underscores the importance of protecting the privacy of the individuals concerned to an appropriate extent and the presumption of innocence; calls on the parties to the Agreement to develop common guidance for the consultation of the independent experts and the publication of their recommendations;
Change 9
Changed:13. Believes that, in order to be fully effective, the interinstitutional ethics bodyBody would need to combine the functions of existing organs responsible for ethics and that therefore, for cases which require specific consideration or for the purpose of developing or updating an ethical standard each participating party should consult the independent experts;
Change 10
Removed:14. Remains committed to constructively engaging in the review of the Agreement which is to be conducted three years after its entry into force in order to improve and enhance the ethics body, as provided for in Article 21 of the Agreement;
Added:14. Stresses the need to define how the mandate of the Vice-President representing Parliament in the Body will be determined and to put in place appropriate accountability mechanisms;
Removed:15. Recalls its position that the body should be able to investigate on its own initiative alleged breaches of ethical rules by officials and staff of EU institutions and to conduct on-the-spot and records-based investigations using the information that it has collected or that it has received from third parties;
Added:15. Considers it necessary to clarify who would be the Parliament’s alternate representative in the Body;
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Added:16. Considers that the Committee on Constitutional Affairs should play a role in determining the mandate of the Vice-President representing Parliament in the Body, as well as in holding the Vice-President and the alternate representative accountable; considers it of the utmost importance that Members of the European Parliament have a say in the development of standards that will be binding on them;
Added:17. Remains committed to constructively engaging in the review of the Agreement which is to be conducted three years after its entry into force in order to improve and enhance the Body, as provided for in Article 21 of the Agreement;
Added:18. Recalls its position that the Body should be able to investigate on its own initiative alleged breaches of ethical rules by officials and staff of EU institutions and to conduct on-the-spot and records-based investigations using the information that it has collected or that it has received from third parties;