Follow up to the 2009 and 2014 Studies on the Code of Conduct for Commissioners - Improving Effectiveness and Efficiency

Részletes elemzés 15-07-2019

The European Parliament is very attentive to the issue of transparency and integrity within the EU institutions. In the past, the EP has commissioned two studies to verify the level of effectiveness and efficiency of the Code of Conduct for Commissioners of the European Commission. This in-depth analysis verifies whether the Code of Conduct of 2018 complies with the requests the EP has made in order to guarantee the best performance in terms of transparency and integrity by the EC Commissioners. Most of the EP requests have been satisfied. However, there is still some room for improvement in terms of transparency of the Independent Ethical Committee, the cooling off period for Commissioners and provisions related to the role of the European Ombudsman within the Code. Moreover, the Code of Conduct, being a soft law instrument, could be upgraded to a hard law instrument having a stronger binding force. Finally, the EP could reiterate the study recommendations concerning stricter provisions on the involvement of Commissioners in the national, regional or local politics.