Parliament decides to look into its own rules on integrity after critical report

DutchNews, June 28, 2018

A Dutch parliamentary working party is to look into the way integrity issues are dealt with by MPs, following the publication of a critical report by the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption body Greco. 

The report, published earlier this week, said that the regulation and monitoring of integrity issues in parliament was not satisfactory and made a direct reference to the controversial gift of an apartment to D66 leader Alexander Pechtold. 

Pechtold did not mention the apartment in the official register of members’ interests, saying it was a private matter.

‘Greco notes the house…  still has no plan to introduce a system for supervision and enforcement of the integrity rules,’ the report said. ‘This is regrettable, and a recent case has shown the need for the House to oversee the implementation of the rules and provide authoritative interpretation of them.’ 

Parliamentary chairwoman Khadija Arib has now asked the working party to look thoroughly at the rules governing gifts, lobbyists and other integrity issues in the light of Greco’s recommendations.