Open letter to the President, Vice-Presidents and Quaestors of the European Parliament
Legal experts from the European Parliament have been reported [1] to have indicated that working for a lobby firm while being an member of the European Parliament, is in line with the new code. ALTER-EU strongly disagree with this view: an MEP being employed by a lobby group is a direct violation of articles 1, 2 and 3 of the code. The code spells out the obligation to act solely in the public interest and to avoid any “personal interest that could improperly influence the performance”.
It moreover rules out MEPs “receiving any direct or indirect financial benefit or other reward in exchange for influencing”. Being employed by an industry lobby group contradicts these important principles. It should be remembered that the cash-for-amendments scandal was about MEPs holding second jobs as lobbyists for outside interests. We encourage you to take the necessary measures to ensure that jobs that imply conflicts of interest are effectively ruled out as the code enters into force.
