In a meeting with Cypriot journalists on the sidelines of the EP plenary session, DISY MEP Eleni Stavrou said that democracy and the institution of the MEP and the European Parliament had been damaged.
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He also noted the statement earlier by the Speaker of the House, Roberta Metsola, that it is not about political positioning but about what is right and what is wrong and that we must "stand with the judiciary and the institutions" precisely to prevent the institution of democracy from being damaged.
Stavrou added that the laws must be followed, noting that there are several rules on transparency and on the meetings MEPs have with various non-governmental organisations and various other lobbies. They need to shed light on who is funding these non-profit organizations which is what President Metsola said, Stavrou said.
DISY MEP Loukas Fourlas said it is "clear" now that some foreign powers are trying to use interference to distort decisions for their own interests, and it seems they are finding some "Trojan horses" in the European Parliament to do their job. He said he thinks this crisis is a good opportunity "to clean up some things and get on the right footing."
Maybe they should rethink how lobbies work inside the European Parliament and do a purge of those who are corrupt, he added. He also said that the institution of the EP should not be flattened for some "rotten apples" which he said should be isolated and criminal charges should be brought wherever they exist.
AKEL MEP Niyazi Kiziljirek noted that for the first time there is such a scandal in the European Parliament whose credibility has been damaged. "We are not in the same position we were in yesterday as a European Parliament," he said.
The question is, he added, what measures the European Parliament can take to avoid such phenomena, given that the House is surrounded by lobbies, and by governments with each one pushing for its own interests.
So, he added, there must be better protection and greater transparency. Very serious measures must be taken to eradicate this phenomenon, not only in the EP but also in Cyprus and other countries where, he said, politics and corruption "are married".
He also noted that if this scandal had not happened, the visa liberalisation for Qatar and Kuwait would have passed today with a large majority.
AKEL MEP George Georgiou[/B] said that the Belgian authorities should be congratulated, as it was they who raised the issue and not the EP, "so it is not of their own initiative to show that we want to put the knife deep into the bone". He noted that there were mechanisms and bodies in the EU and the EP that could have done so, but they did not, he said.
He added that he did not agree that it was "the biggest scandal", but one of the scandals that rocked Europe, and expressed pessimism that things would change because too many structures and interests would have to change, he said, and that priorities were being subordinated, serving geopolitical energy and political-economic interests that do not take into account, for example, whether there is a dictatorship in Qatar, "but serving interests".
The issues are structural and systemic, and relate to the interests the EU serves as such, Georgiou said, adding that the policy has moved away from the reason it should exist, which is to serve the common good.
Source: CNA
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