Two years ago it sounded different: the Political State Committees (SPK) of both councils wanted to avoid any appearance of bribery and to prohibit the acceptance of paid mandates related to sitting on parliamentary committees.
However, the implementation draft for the parliamentary initiative of the Council of States Beat Rieder (Mitte/US) has not made it through to the committee of the Council of States. And the proposal did not find a majority in the Council on Thursday either. It was written off by a vote of 34 to 8 with 2 abstentions. The National Council has yet to confirm this decision.
According to Commission spokesman Thomas Minder (Independent/SH), the majority had come to the conclusion that the corresponding amendment to the parliamentary law “raised questions about its constitutionality” because it led to unequal treatment of councillors. In addition, it brings too many interpretation and application problems. This was also confirmed by a report from the Federal Office of Justice (FOJ).
Rieder fought courageously in the Council for “his” proposal: the subject of lobbying was topical after the scandal in the EU parliament. “We must avoid the most serious conflicts of interest.” The phenomenon of companies or organizations recruiting councilors after joining a particular committee is widespread.
Rieder put the legal concerns about the submission into perspective. The councils could still make “necessary adjustments” during the deliberations. The majority saw no way to do this and copied the template.
(SDA)