Today the European Parliament voted in favour of tougher measures to scrutinise European Commissioners’ declarations of interest. The measures are designed to improvethe  transparency and accountability of the EU institutions. The S&D Group ensured that Commissioners would be obliged to declare the financial interests of family members and any contractual relation they have.

S&D Group spokesperson for legal affairs, Evelyn Regner MEP, stated:

“From Commissioner Cañete’s appearance in the Panama Papers to former Commissioner Neelie Kroes’ role as director of an offshore company in the Bahamas, each new tax-evasion scandal seems to implicate some high-level figure in the European Commission. If we want to regain trust then the EU needs to become much more transparent and we must hold those acting immorally to account.

“We support a zero-tolerance approach towards conflicts of interest. Today we have backed measures that would ensure greater scrutiny from the Parliament over Commissioners’ appointments and would ensure that measures can be taken when a conflict of interest is present.

“We can only keep preaching about corruption or tackling tax evasion if the European Parliament has a clean slate. We need to show we can be more accountable and transparent, and these measures are a step in the right direction.”