Labour MP Edward Scicluna has denied conflict of interest in the drafting of an EU report.
He issued his denial after having been mentioned in connection with calls for greater transparency in the EP and action against potential conflicts.
An alliance of transparency campaigners has called for a root and branch overhaul of ethics rules for MEPs, following the revelations published in the UK newspaper, The Sunday Times exposing how three MEPs were prepared to accept payments in return for tabling amendments in the European Parliament.
The Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation in the EU (ALTER-EU) also demanded that all three MEPs resign immediately. One of the three, Austrian MEP Ernst Strasser announced he was stepping down yesterday. Zoran Thaler MEP and Adrian Severin MEP were also accused of accepting cash for laws in the newspaper sting.
ALTER-EU said that the European Parliament’s rules governing transparency, ethics, conflicts of interest and relations with lobbyists are currently far too lax and offer little protection against unscrupulous behaviour.
Andy Rowell, speaking for ALTER-EU, said:
“This scandal was an accident waiting to happen. The politicians in Brussels – who are responsible for making the laws – enjoy far too cosy a relationship with industry lobbyists. It is not surprising that the MEPs found it so easy to act on behalf of the fake lobbyists. This scandal could be merely the tip of the iceberg. Rules on ethics and conflicts of interests are simply too weak”.
ALTER EU has long called for reform of conflicts of interest rules for the European Parliament and the Commission. The European Parliament does not currently have an ethics code or an ethics committee, but only some basic principles outlined in its rules of procedure.
ALTER-EU is calling for an investigation into all the second jobs currently held by MEPs and the urgent development of strict rules for second jobs, including a ban on all jobs that involve lobbying or otherwise lead to conflicts of interest. An in depth report from Reuters last week revealed that numerous MEPs hold second jobs that lead to obvious conflicts of interest, all of which go unchallenged due to the lack of adequate ethics rules for MEPs.
When giving examples of conflicts of interest, the group mentioned Edward Scicluna, who sits on the parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee and who, it claimed, co-wrote laws for hedge funds last year. Scicluna, it claimed, is also the chairman of two investment funds run by HSBC.
However Prof Scicluna issued a prompt denial.
"It is not true that I drafted the law on hedge funds or that I tabled any amendments. The investment funds are equity and bond funds for small savers and pensions, for which HSBC is the manager .
"My relationship with HSBC is no different from any depositor whose money is administered by a bank," the Labour MEP said.