After the Qatargate affair, which shook the Eurocrats in 2022, European Parliament head Robert Metsol introduced a fresh Code of Ethics that requires Euro MPs to disclose conflicts of interest, including “family, emotional life or economical interests”. As it turns out, the code does not apply to Metsola itself.
Once again, the Politico reveals unclear links between Eurocrats who usage public positions for their own purposes. The husband elected for the second word of president of the European Parliament, Ukko Metsola, is simply a major EU lobbyist acting in the interests of the Royal Caribbean Group based in Miami. This is the second largest company offering luxury cruises in the world. This is besides to be 1 of the most polluting companies.
Metsola did not formally study a conflict of interest. Her husband only filled out the lobbying form. The president avoided appropriate control. Parliament’s representatives explained that “being married to a working individual is not a possible conflict of interest in accordance with Parliament’s principles”. It besides added that the function of Roberta Metsoli is "other than the function of those who hold the positions mentioned" in the ethical principles that concern the 14 Vice-Presidents of the Chambers, the 5 Quaestors - MEPs liable for administrative and financial affairs and the chairmen and vice-presidents of Parliamentary committees.
"The president represents the interests of the European Parliament as an institution", and the fresh rules were aimed at positions "related to a circumstantial portfolio or act", and thus "increased hazard of possible conflicts of interest".
"Politico" suggests that "the example of Metsoli's matrimony underlines the limitations of Parliament's transparency rules.
The head of the European Parliament is 1 of the most influential people in Brussels and has always presented herself as a advocate for transparency, demanding greater efforts to improve the image of Brussels Eurocrats among the public.
"Politico" claims that "out of the 14 MEPs, officials and anti-corruption activists who were interviewed by POLITICO for the purposes of this article – people who were most likely expected to know about a possible conflict of interest – only 2 knew that Metsola's husband was working for the amusement industry". And no of them noticed the exception in the fresh Code of Ethics.
The EP chief's husband assured that they had a “Chinese wall” in relation to their work. He stopped straight lobbying Euro MPs and Royal Caribbean has now hired an additional individual to work with Parliament.
Metsola's matrimony is to show how politics penetrates business in Brussels. Future spouses met in Malta in 1999. They both graduated from elite schools. The future EP president was educated at the College of Europe in Bruges, which was the base of Brussels bureaucracy. Ukko, originally from Finland, attended the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. They both had political ambitions. And they both, unsuccessfully, sought to be elected to the EP in 2000.
Despite their failure, they did not quit their plans. Roberta worked in Maltese government offices in Brussels and then in EU diplomacy. Ukko, before becoming a consultant at the Royal Caribbean Group in 2007, worked for the Finnish government. His wife yet got into the EP in 2014. Over the years, she has been promoted to the committees and offices of Parliament to become the youngest always president of the home in 2022. In July this year, she was re-elected for her second two-and-a-half-year term.
From the very beginning, Metsola presented herself as a determined individual to fight corruption and crime. She was on the parliamentary committee investigating offshore companies utilized by corrupt politicians. She demanded settlement of Maltese politicians active in the execution of writer Daphne Caruan Galizia, an anti-corruption activist who died in the 2017 bombing.
Despite her reputation as a corruption slayer, she did not take adequate action against herself and her husband, who in September 2020 assumed the temporary function of manager General of the European Cruise Lines global Association, the most powerful lobbying body in the industry. His word of office ended 1 year later, 1 period before Roberta was appointed as president of Parliament.
The couple is scheduled to regularly organize garden receptions at their home in the Ixelles' green urban territory for the "Brixselian elite". Ukko has participated repeatedly in negotiations in Brussels institutions.
Last week, the EP chief appointed her longtime individual assistant and brother-in-law Matthew Tabone as head of her cabinet. Earlier, erstwhile she tried, she withdrew in the face of media hype.
Ukko lobbied on the alleged green transition and carbon prices from shipping. He supported the "green transition" but sought EU support for coal taxation measures to return to the industry. He besides sought backing for fuel cell investigation for the Royal Caribbean, and late pressed the European Commission to ease the financing of fresh technologies to adapt them to cruise ships leaving EU waters. The Commission even informed the Commission that it was examining the application. Royal Caribbean Group staff were besides to push the Commission to supply public funds for the manufacture for a "green transition".
Metsola's husband is to be “a very effective lobbyist”. He knows who to turn to, how to act, etc. Moreover, he manages to rapidly arrange meetings with EU influential officials.
The EP president did not study a possible conflict of interest, nor did she "miss" the deadline for declaring the gifts presented to her last year. Its subordinates argued that publishing a list of gifts presented in connection with the office is contrary to the "ordinary" of erstwhile presidents. Metsola claims she never crossed any ethical boundaries.
While, in accordance with the fresh provisions of the president himself, all meetings of Euro MPs with lobbyists, relating to Parliament's activities, should be publically announced, the president of Parliament does not request to inform the public that her husband is simply a lobbyist. The president spoke more than erstwhile about the shipping industry, which coincided with her husband's demands.
Source: Politico.eu
AS
