13 January 2023
Tougher Integrity Rules for the European Parliament
The current scandal at the European Parliament might trigger an overdue discussion: Foreign officials should be either prohibited to lobby on legislation or be subject to rigorous disclosure rules. Continue reading >>
0 
12 January 2023
Das Postfaktische über Korruption in der Europäischen Union
Auch wenn es dem Europäischen Parlament in den letzten Jahren gelungen ist, eine Mehrheit zu finden, um die Mitgliedstaaten Ungarn, Polen, Rumänien, die Slowakei, Bulgarien und Malta wegen Korruption zu schelten, ist es weitaus schwieriger, seine eigenen Mitglieder zu kontrollieren. Das Europäische Parlament ist der absolute Herrscher über seine eigene Integrität. Wenn es seine Möglichkeiten einschränken will, indem es volle Transparenz bei Sitzungen, Zugang, Ausgaben und Reisen bietet, kann es das tun - gute Vorschläge liegen schon seit Jahren vor. Continue reading >>
0
10 January 2023
Qatargate: The tip of the iceberg?
It is strange that the European Union, which is so insistent that Member States and third countries should comply with the rule of law, does not yet have a binding global framework for implementing the principles of transparency and good administration. Unfortunately, thirteen years after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, legislative transparency is far from being ensured and Article 298 TFEU on good administration has only been triggered this year for the first time. Continue reading >>20 December 2022
The Post-Truth about Corruption in the European Union
Even if the European Parliament has in recent years managed to get a majority to scold member states Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Malta on corruption it has a far more difficult time in controlling its own members. The current Qatar gate so far involves just a few MPs alongside EP vice-president PASOK Eva Kaili. However, Qatar paid luxury trips for several MEPs, although a few refused, and some more MPs had offered public endorsement to Qatar already. The European Parliament is the absolute sovereign of its own integrity. If it wants to cut opportunities by offering full transparency on meetings, access, expenses and travel, it can- good proposals have been laying around for years. Continue reading >>
0
15 December 2022
The Qatar Scandal and Third Country Lobbying
The EU was given the worst kind of early Christmas present: a corruption scandal that has rocked the Union to its core giving ammunition to anti-EU populist actors and drawing attention and schadenfreude from outside the EU. The facts of the case remain under investigation, but the case has already been approached from many angles.Qatar has been given the role of an international villain in this story, and the EU has used the opportunities to frame the case as malign third country efforts to corrupt the EU. While there is no denying the corrupting role of a third country, the EU’s framing enables it to pose as a victim, which, as I argue in this blogpost, is intellectually dishonest and harmful. Continue reading >>
0
28 October 2022
Unexploited Monitoring Opportunities
Over the last year and a half, the European Border Coast Guard Agency has been under an unprecedented scrutiny. The Frontex saga started in 2020 when investigative journalists published ground-breaking findings, revealing how the Agency was breaching the law being complicit with human rights violations committed by Greek authorities. National Parliaments could play a bigger role in monitoring Frontex, serving as a complementary avenue for democratic oversight, in addition to the European Parliament. Continue reading >>
0
18 October 2022
A Chernobyl Case for our Times
On 10 October 2022, René Repasi, a member of the European Parliament, brought a case against the European Commission before the EU General Court. The key question of the case is procedural: Does an individual MEP have standing to claim before the Court that an EU act has been based on the wrong legal basis, if the choice of legal basis affects an MEP’s participatory rights. If Mr. Repasi succeeds, his case could significantly strengthen the Court’s role in protecting the rights of the minority in the European Parliament. It could introduce a new type of player to EU institutional legal battles – the MEP – and establish a sort of Organstreitverfahren for individual MEPs. Continue reading >>18 October 2022
Repasi vs Plaumann
On 10 October 2022 MEP René Repasi lodged an action for annulment against the complementary taxonomy delegated regulation 2022/1214. The same regulation is also challenged by Austria, a privileged applicant under Article 263 TFEU. This post focuses on the issue which MEP Repasi himself has noted is the most innovative of his action, namely the question whether an individual MEP has special legal standing to challenge an act (of the Commission) that affects how that MEP fulfils his parliamentary function. Continue reading >>
0
08 June 2022
Censuring von der Leyen’s Capitulation on the Rule of Law
The spectre of a motion of censure is looming over the von der Leyen Commission. While this rather extraordinary, perhaps desperate, measure appears unlikely to attain the required number of signatures to be tabled – and even less likely to be adopted by the European Parliament –, this initiative deserves some scrutiny. Perhaps even some praise by those who still believe in the primacy of law over power. Continue reading >>
0
21 March 2022
“An Ever-Stronger Union” Under the Radar of the European Public
The intergovernmental political mode of EU defense policy is no longer appropriate for the level of European integration in this policy field, the development of which will significantly shape the European project in the coming years. In particular, it is necessary that the European Parliament and the national parliaments be informed of upcoming political decisions in a substantive and timely manner: They should be informed as long as the political process is still open, and their position should be a constituent part of decision-making at the EU level. Continue reading >>
0