Following today's vote in plenary, where an overwhelming majority has approved a compromise resolution on the integrity policy of the Commission, in particular the appointment of the Secretary-General of the European Commission, the S&D Group underlines its deep disappointment with the method used and calls on the Commission to not only come up with new more transparent rules by the end September 2018, but also to reassess the post. The Selmayr scandal has rightly irritated European citizens, embarrassed all the institutions and frustrated those who fight and work for a fair and better EU. This must never happen again.

 

 

“The Selmayr scandal is the perfect example of the kind of European Union we fight against: murky deals with a full disregard to basic values such as transparency, integrity and equal opportunities. The way the European Commission has appointed its Secretary-General has rightly caused widespread disapproval and annoyance among our citizens, risking deteriorating the reputation of not only the Commission, but of all the EU institutions. The S&D Group finds this unacceptable.

 

“Hence, we worked very hard to get a compromise resolution, supported by a large majority among all other groups, and we welcome the achievement we were able to reach.

 

“First and foremost new rules: we call on the Commission to review, by September 2018, its procedure for the appointment of senior officials by dramatically upgrading transparency and equal opportunities in a way to be used by all EU institutions as best practice.

 

“Secondly: we demand the Commission to reassess the appointment of the Secretary-General under the new rules which should ensure the nomination of the best candidate by giving all possible candidates the possibility to apply and compete. The Selmayr scandal was an embarrassing disgrace for the whole of the European institutions. We will use all that we have in our hands to make sure this won’t happen ever again.”