European Parliament President Roberta Metsola decided in 2022 that the best way to fight corruption was “to expose it to the disinfecting sunlight of transparency”, POLITICO writes.
She pushed through a new ethics code that demanded — among other things — that the Parliament’s senior members declare conflicts of interest, including any “involving his or her family, emotional life or economic interest.”
But under those new rules, one key person was left out: the president herself. Had she been required to make such a declaration, she might have considered notifying the public that her husband, Ukko Metsola, was the top EU lobbyist for the Miami-based Royal Caribbean Group, the world՛s second-largest cruise ship company and a major corporate polluter.
The example of the Metsolas highlights the limitations of the Parliament’s transparency rules, which largely leave it up to lawmakers to manage their affairs and conflicts privately. Roberta is one of the most influential people in Brussels, the political face of the Parliament and its administrative center of power. She has presented herself throughout her career as a champion of transparency, demanding stronger efforts to cure the public’s jaundiced view of Brussels. But when it comes to her own affairs, she has declined to lead by example. Ukko Metsola’s royal checklist includes the king and queen of Belgium and Britain’s King Charles III.
