The Socialists and Democrats (S&D) in the European Parliament aspire to keep the vice-presidency that was withdrawn from Greek Socialist MEP Eva Kaili for her alleged involvement in the Qatar bribery scheme, so this Wednesday the group has chosen the Luxembourger Marc Angel as a candidate to fill a vacancy that will dispute at least one candidate of the Greens, the French Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield.
The Social Democrats have chosen Angel as candidate with the will to «lead the reform process necessary to fight corruption and interference», as they have communicated through social networks.
Despite the scandal over the corruption network uncovered by the Belgian justice system and for which several Socialist MEPs are being investigated, the group is confident that its candidate has a «solid majority» of support from the European Parliament, according to Social Democrat sources told Europa Press.
The European Parliament will hold the vote next Tuesday during its plenary session held in Strasbourg (France), at which time last-minute nominations could be submitted.
For the moment, however, only the Green group disputes the Socialist candidate for the post with the defense of the French MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield as the best option.
«We need a zero tolerance strategy against corruption. We need more lack of transparency, accountability and oversight,» Delbos-Corfield has said after being elected candidate by her group.
«We need to regain the trust of citizens with tough anti-corruption measures. This means significantly improving whistleblower protection, establishing an independent ethics body with investigative powers, mandatory registration of third countries in the transparency register and registration of lobby meetings, including with representatives of third countries,» she argued.
The European Parliament elected just a year ago its fourteen vice-presidents for the remaining two and a half years of the legislature, a distribution negotiated by the groups every half term. On the basis of the balance agreed then between the main families – European People’s Party, Social Democrats and Liberals – the Socialists hope to win back the vice-presidency at stake after the dismissal of Kaili.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
