MEP takes Commission to court over ‘useless’ parliamentary answers
Follow the Money
»The European Commission is legally obliged to answer written questions from Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) – but the replies are often completely useless, German MEP Fabio De Masi told us.
Hoping to change that, the lawmaker from the non-aligned, left-leaning Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht party has filed a lawsuit at the EU’s second highest court. It all started with a question: Had President Ursula von der Leyen been directly lobbied by US arms manufacturers hoping to benefit from rising European defence spending? Von der Leyen and her team refused to give a “proper answer” to De Masi's, the lawmaker claimed. Instead, they showed what he called a “Louis XIV mentality - l’etat c’est moi”, he told us. In other words, the Commission acted as if it was above scrutiny.
Beyond this specific lobbying question, De Masi wants to address an open legal question. Can an individual EU lawmaker enforce their right to information from the Commission, or does that power rest only with the European Parliament as a whole?
“The court should clarify whether parliamentary questions have to be replied to properly,” he said.«