Much Ado About Nothing? Reflections on the European Commission's Proposal for an Inter-institutional Ethics Body

Abstract

On 8 June 2023, the European Commission published a long-awaited proposal for the establishment of an interinstitutional ethics body, meant to restore the public's faith in the European Union's administration following the Qatargate corruption scandal. Alas, the Commission's proposal outlines a body that lacks investigative and sanctioning powers, has minimal administrative capacity and for the most part relies on the institution's own policing. Put simply, it falls short of the promises made by the Commission's President in her 2019 political guidelines, and much shorter of what was expected as a remedy to the European Union's recent ethics-related scandals. In this short piece, we reflect on the Commission's proposal for an inter-institutional ethics body in light of the overall ethics framework in the Union and provide a brief analysis of the Commission's missed opportunity and of what could have been.