Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield is running for the European Parliament Vice-President seat for Greens/EFA

Today, the Greens/EFA group has selected Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield to run as their candidate for the position of Vice-President of the European Parliament. Delbos-Corfield has a long history of advocating for anti-corruption and rule of law measures, more recently as European Parliament Rapporteur for the situation in Hungary.

Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield MEP, Greens/EFA candidate for European Parliament Vice-President, comments:

"We need a zero-tolerance strategy against corruption. Corruption thrives best in the dark where transparency, accountability and oversight are lacking. As Vice-President of the European Parliament, I would work with colleagues from across the political spectrum to make the European Parliament a credible force against corruption. We need to win back the trust of citizens, with strict anti-corruption measures. This means significantly improving whistleblower protection for staff, establishing an independent ethics body with investigative powers, mandatory entries of third countries in the transparency register, and the registration of lobby meetings, including with representatives of third countries."

The Greens/EFA call for:

1. Significantly enhancing whistleblower protection for staff members and APAs, by revising the Staff Regulations, in order to align them with the standards of the Whistleblower Directive;
2. The establishment of an ethics body with the power to investigate all EU institutions, bodies and agencies, with the necessary financial means and staff to carry out its tasks fully;
3. Reform of the transparency register to make it mandatory for all organisations and third countries representatives lobbying the EU institutions and introduce more stringent transparency rules, mapping foreign funding for EU-related lobbying, and ensuring an entry which allows for the identification of funding from foreign governments and entities acting on their behalf;
4. A strong and independent oversight mechanism, established through a full reform of the Advisory Committee on the Code of Conduct of Members, to ensure the enforcement and monitoring of obligations, including with the participation of external experts, and coupled with the establishment of a complaint mechanism for anyone to report potential violations
5. Sanctions for MEPs not complying with ethics, rules and regulations: clear and enhanced sanctions regime s needs to be in place and transparently enforced and not applied only by the President discretionally.
6. Specific obligations for Members to declare their assets at the beginning and end of each mandate, to offer additional safeguards against corruption; side jobs, gifts and travels not paid for by the European Parliament must be duly declared by MEPs, publicly accessible and monitored in order to avoid conflict of interest;
7. Introduce a cooling off period for former MEPs to ensure that they cannot use their position to influence policy;
8. Establish a special committee with a strong mandate on transparency and anti-corruption, to ensure the revision of the European Parliament's ethics rules under public scrutiny.

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Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield is from France and member of Europe Ecologie - Les Verts, she is European Parliament Rapporteur for the situation in Hungary, member of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, the Constitutional Affairs Committee, and the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee.

Following the revelations about the corruption scandal surrounding Eva Kaili, Members of the European Parliament relieved the previous Vice-President of her office on the 13th of December.

According to current planning, the special election of the Vice-President will take place on Tuesday next week at 12 am during the plenary session in Strasbourg.

Read the Greens/EFA press release Parliament stands united against corruption in the wake of the Quatargate revelations