The EU has just exposed how corrupt it really is

The "Qatargate" probe into corruption in the EU has unearthed something dark in Brussels, with a bribery network of MEPs and NGOs alleged to have promoted the interests of Qatar in exchange for cash. EU leaders are keen to portray this corruption as somehow isolated, an external influence tainting an otherwise pure project. The reality is that corruption is an inevitable result of the undemocratic nature of the European project.

Members of the European Parliament belong to the only directly elected EU institution. Lacking the ability to initiate legislation, and frequently called upon to consider issues far removed from the concerns of their national constituents, their role is to give a democratic veneer to the grinding machinery of the Union.  This combination has resulted in a class of MEPs more preoccupied with pontificating on abstract themes and issuing reports that amount to little more than PR stunts than with representing the views and interests of the people who elected them.

Many of them work closely with NGOs in Brussels and elsewhere, which usually promote an agenda featuring ever closer European integration, and greater power for the international bodies they lobby.  For members of these institutions, democracy becomes less about the voice of the people than the maintenance of a political ecosystem imposed and maintained from the top down. This wider political culture may have encouraged a sense of entitlement - dare we say it, a sense of "impunity" - among some MEPs.  

If MEPs were simply a wasteful bauble, then that would be one thing. But to their lack of any real power and vague international mandate is added an extraordinary level of protection from the law. While the parliament is in session, MEPs are granted immunity from "any measure of detention and from legal proceedings" in other EU countries, and all immunities accorded to members of their domestic parliament when at home.

This is a toxic combination; MEPs are assigned work of little real importance, on issues constituents care little about, and given enormous legal protection. This is also why the attempts by Brussels to imply that Qatargate is a one-off perversion of the essential purity of European democracy are deeply misguided. It is the fundamental democratic deficit at the heart of the EU that provided perfect conditions for corrupt practices to thrive. 

And it is this deficit which the European Parliament is finding itself unable to adequately address. Proposals put forward by President Roberta Metsola include forcing MEPs to declare meetings when discussing legislative work, and to declare conflicts of interest when writing reports. These are sensible ideas.

They are also attempts to fix problems which should never have existed in the first place. Moreover, they are attempts which came only after Brussels police embarrassed EU leaders in front of the world. Up until now, the EU has been perfectly content with its culture of secrecy and backdoor dealing. 

We can hope for Europe's sake that the reforms being proposed by EU leaders will achieve their desired goal, and put a stop to the egregious corruption in Brussels.

But without a more fundamental change of culture, and a genuine sense of public service respecting the wishes of national electorates, the EU's corruption problem will be here to stay.