"Unfortunately, the European Union has a problem.
Qatargate exposed the situation in the European Union, showing that corruption situations are even in the European Parliament's bureau. We are proceeding another gruesome situation erstwhile an crucial European Commission authoritative accepted gifts from any countries and built inappropriate relations with them as an EU official, in short, he was prone to corruption. Unfortunately, therefore, I do not see the affirmative effects of these assumptions, which have been adopted by Robert Metsola, the European Parliament's marshal, just after Qatargate, says Newseria Bogdan Rzoniec, associate of the European Parliament of the Law and Justice.
The scale of fraud in the EU is increasing.
This concept includes both the illegal usage of EU funds, embezzlements and corruption, which may even affect high-ranking officials, as has been shown by the financial scandals of fresh years. The European Public Prosecutor's Office, the European Anti-Fraud Office or another institutions building an EU anti-fraud structure, although improving efficiency, are incapable to identify all specified cases. According to experts, this undermines citizens' assurance in the EU.
The EP president proposed a number of anti-corruption reforms on lobbying practices in 2023. Last year, Parliament signed an agreement with the EPPO, the European Public Prosecutor's Office, according to which it allows interior investigations into corruption. This is the consequence of the alleged Qatargate scandal of 2022, in which 20 people, including Euro MPs, were accused of taking bribes for promoting Qatar's interests in the European Parliament. Recently, there has been quite a few talk about the investigation into Huawei, in which investigators are investigating possible gifts presented by representatives of the company to MEPs.
The Union is losing crucial resources
– We are proceeding again that erstwhile Commissioner Reynders is having terrible problems due to the fact that he is being prepared to analyse money laundering against him. Commissioner liable for the regulation of law in the European Union. So unfortunately we do not have good information here, the corruption situations are in the European Union, OLAF [European Anti-Fraud Office - ed.] not all these situations are caught. It is very sad that in this way the Union is losing considerable resources," says Bogdan Rzoniec.
The EP, in May, adopted a study on the protection of the European Union's financial interests – the fight against fraud, stressed that organised criminal groups are increasingly utilizing corruption to infiltrate public administration and reap economical benefits. High-level corruption, including in the EU institutions, not only affects the financial interests of the Union and the full EU economy, but besides undermines citizens' assurance in democratic institutions both in the EU and in the associate States.
EU backing to NGOs is not full transparent
– We have besides heard of a very sad incidental involving buying opinions for the affirmative Green Deal. immense money was spent for NGOs, experts, professors, scholars to praise the Green Deal, while there was truly nothing to praise or not only absolute praise could flow towards the Green Deal. It besides took a small critical mass for this project, and possibly present we would be in a different place and entrepreneurs would not complain about this Green Deal – he evaluates the Euro MP from the Law and Justice Office.
The European Court of Auditors highlighted a akin issue in the April report, assessing that EU backing to NGOs is not full transparent. Information on this subject is fragmented and unreliable and there is no clear data on the lobbying and advocacy activities carried out by NGO. Between 2021 and 2023, NGOs were awarded EUR 7.4 billion in key EU interior policies specified as cohesion, research, migration and the environment, of which EUR 4.8 billion was provided by the Commission and EUR 2.6 billion by associate States. However, the Court's auditors stressed that these data should be treated with caution as there is no credible view of the EU backing allocated to NGOs.
Action to prevent corruption in the EU has so far failed
"Unfortunately, the scale of abuse in the EU is widening and it concerns both the very high-ranking people in the European Commission, in the European Parliament and besides the Euro MPs. There are investigations, there are arrests, there are explanations, but it is besides about spending money for NGOs, which simply work for any EU environments, not the full Union. So I gotta say that these actions that were intended to prevent corruption in the EU have so far failed," says Bogdan Rzoniec.
