Recently re-elected European Parliament President Roberta Metsola was the forerunner of the new ethics code that was introduced by the EP last September. The revision of rules was needed to react to the largest corruption scandal that ever hit the EP: Qatargate.
Elected to the role in 2022, Roberta Metsola was believed to have raised the Parliament’s ethical standards with her 14-point reform plan that revised the EP’s code of conduct. Part of the reform was to better define what constitutes a conflict of interest, which according to Article (3) ‘exists where the exercise of the mandate of a Member of the European Parliament in the public interest may be improperly influenced for reasons involving his or her family, emotional life or economic interest, or any other direct or indirect private interest.’ According to the newly accepted rules, senior members (e.g., vice-presidents and quaestors of the European Parliament) are required to declare any possible conflicts of interest, including the ones involving their families, before taking up their offices.
‘The EP President is not required to disclose conflicts of interest’
These rules that many hoped would enhance the European Parliament’s transparency came with a flaw that became apparent to the public only in recent weeks: the EP President herself is not required to disclose conflicts of interest. According to information recently published by POLITICO, had President Roberta Metsola been required to make a conflict of interest declaration, her familial ties would have caused her considerable inconvenience. Ukko Metsola, the President’s husband, is a lobbyist for the Miami-based Royal Caribbean Group, the world’s second-largest cruise ship company. Among many other large cruises, the Royal Caribbean Group owns the Icon of the Seas (1.86 billion EUR), which is the largest cruise ship in the world capable of housing almost 8,000 guests and 2,000 staff. Ironically, while the European Parliament President has been apparently making efforts to push green regulations through the EP, the cruise industry her husband is lobbying for is a global polluter. In addition, industry lobbyists such as Ukko Metsola are known to work hard to convince legislators to draft more industry-friendly environmental regulations. Meanwhile, it was the spouse of Mr Metsola wo headed the European Parliament under Ursula von der Leyen’s European Green Deal programme.
Although it is true that the husband, Ukko Metsola did seem to have been properly registered in the EU’s so-called transparency register, and was named as the ‘person in charge of EU relations’, his wife might have influenced legislation in favour of her family interests. Also, his wife’s prominent political position has clearly helped in raising Mr Metsola’s profile— he even accompanied his wife to the coronation of Britain’s King Charles III. Even though he told POLITICO he stopped directly lobbying MEPs ‘to prevent even the perception of impropriety’ once his wife started to rise in the ranks of the EP, the doors that opened to him due to his wife’s position leaves many open questions about the couple’s silence on the husband’s job. Albeit the Commission redacted names from the lobby records that were made available to the public, the Royal Caribbean Group’s officials did recently lobby for EU funds for clean technologies so that they can comply more easily with the green regulations reducing the emission rates of the industry. According to a campaigner quoted by POLITICO, Ukko Metsola did ask for EU taxpayers’ money to help his company meet the EU’s green goals, and during that process Ukko was desribed as a ‘very effective lobbyist’.
‘Nepotism seems to be a serious concern regarding the Maltese President’s leadership’
The President, who once positioned herself as the one who brought transparency and accountability to the chamber, has found herself under fire not only because of her husband’s lobby activities but also for appointing her brother-in-law, Matthew Tabone as the head of her cabinet. Metsola had already tried in 2022 (after her presidential nomination) to place Matthew Tabone in this position but then backed off after a minor scandal erupted. Matthew Tabone had started to work for Metsola in the Parliament already in 2013 and then married the now President’s sister in 2015. Nepotism indeed seems to be a serious concern regarding the Maltese President’s leadership.
In addition, a controversy of a different type has already given Roberta Metsola a headache. There was another incident last year that cast a shadow over her presidency: in early 2023 Metsola declared 142 gifts she had received—missing the deadline to declare such gifts in relation to 125 of the items. The gifts Metsola declared included a gold model tower from a Moroccan politician, as well as a dress with golden embroidery from a parliamentarian from Bahrain. Metsola’s declaration of gifts came within a month of announcing her 14 reforms to tighten transparency rules for MEPs in the wake of the Qatargate scandal.
These incidents are all the more disturbing given that Roberta Metsola likes to pose as the reformer of the European Parliament, and they also demonstrate the pervasive cronyism present in Strasbourg. Despite half-hearted efforts to face and address the EP’s ‘culture of impunity’, not much seems to have changed. Without introducing considerable oversight of the MEPs finances, as well as genuine accountability to the people that elect their representatives, the European Parliament will never measure up to the standards national parliaments and their representatives are held to.
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