The Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament will be brought to the Plenary Session of the Parliament tomorrow, satisfying one of the shortcomings pointed out by the anti-corruption committee, Greco, of the Council of Europe.
The eight-page Code governs the general conduct of Members of Parliament, and sets out issues of transparency, such as bribery and paid travel abroad.
The Parliamentary Committee on Institutions concluded the discussion of the Code, covering and incorporating the accepted amendments tabled in a previous plenary session, while those amendments that were not accepted will be put to a vote tomorrow.
“Essentially, from tomorrow, the mode of operation of each Member of Parliament will be regulated, a requirement which was also present in the Greco report and we had committed as an Institutions Committee to implement all Greco's remarks before the specific session of Parliament closes,” said Zacharias committee chairman Zachariou in statements after the session.
According to Mr. Zachariou, the Code was a compromise product in order to have the widest possible consensus and was drafted after a study of Codes valid in parliaments of other EU member states, as well as parliaments that have a similar system to that of Cyprus.
“The philosophy is one, the proper functioning of the Member of Parliament both in Parliament and in life and the model he must set for everyone,” he said.
The Code provides for the establishment of an ethics committee which will be composed on the basis of the article of the Constitution that governs the appointment of the selection committee of the Parliament.
Political penalties
As Mr. Zachariou stated, in case of violation of the Code by a Member of Parliament, a “political penalty” will be imposed. As he explained, if the ethics committee decides that a Member of Parliament violated the Code, then either the Chairman of the committee or the Speaker of the Parliament will report before the Plenary that the specific Member of Parliament has violated the Code and will be called to apologize and condemn the act. his, as he said.
However, he added, on this issue, an amendment has been submitted by the Citizens' Alliance to cut part of the salary of a member of parliament who violates the provisions of the Code.
“The issue is political and not monetary and if someone is rich he will come every week to submit what he wants and do what he wants in Parliament”, noted Mr. Zachariou, adding that what is important “is civil society to know the behavior of each of us, to have transparency and to judge us “.
Saying that in Cyprus the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament provide for a cut in the remuneration of the Member of Parliament only in case of unjustified absence from parliamentary committees, Mr. Zachariou said that “we believe that it is more appropriate to sentence him politically and if something disciplinary or criminal follows the laws that exist and this is the theory that prevailed after a lot of discussion and different views “.
For his part, AKEL MP Andreas Passiourtidis said that “it is a given and incomprehensible that at a time when the discrediting of society and citizens towards politicians and consequently MPs is established, the need to establish a code of conduct is imperative ”and described the Code as a step towards transparency.
He further added that the text adopted by the Commission was acceptable to all political parties, adding that some amendments would be tabled in plenary tomorrow.
“As parties and as MPs and as politicians, any action and action aimed at restoring the trust of the citizens, who are the ones who elect us and represent them, is imperative and we seek it,” he concluded.
Finally, the MP of the Movement of Ecologists – Citizens' Cooperation, George Perdikis, said that the Code is a product of consensus, adding that the Movement has tabled amendments regarding the amount of gifts received by a Member of Parliament and the ban on travel paid by companies.
“What matters most in any Code of Conduct is its implementation,” he said, adding that a Code of Conduct has been drafted for members of the Council of Ministers, “but we have seen the President of the Republic violate it himself.”
Regarding the amendments tabled by the Ecologists, Mr. Perdikis said that the former sets a limit for receiving a gift of € 500 per year from a specific donor and € 1,500 per year from all donors. As he said, the Code as it has been prepared provides for the receipt of a gift up to € 150 per donor (without limit how many times he receives it), while for a gift beyond this amount, the Ethics Committee must be informed.
Finally, regarding the trips, Mr. Perdikis said that the trips of MPs paid by companies should not be allowed, which according to the Code are allowed as long as they are declared.
Resolution of the delivery of naturalization documents to the Police
In addition, the committee discussed today the draft decision submitted by EDEK, so that the MPs who hold naturalization documents can submit them to the Police in the context of the investigation of the documents on the Al Jazeera television network.
At the session, the legal department of the Parliament informed the committee about the binding nature of the decision.
The Chairman of the Committee said that after the information from the Legal Department, EDEK decided to submit to tomorrow's Plenary Session a request that the decision be changed to a resolution and then it will return to the Institutions Committee for consideration and promotion in Plenary.
As a representative of the legal department of the Parliament stated at the session, the resolutions do not create obligations but are declarative in nature and that according to the case law of the Supreme Court, the decisions of the Parliament cannot be binding if they are of a political nature.
EDEK President Marinos Sizopoulos told the committee that the Movement has no problem such as the draft decision being turned into a draft resolution, even if it is not binding, as this, as he said, will show the willingness to address the issue of leaks. He also reminded that the MPs of EDEK have submitted all the relevant documents in their possession.
“What we are interested in is that the Parliament was exposed because (the Al Jazeera network) has documents that have its stamp on it. So either from MPs or from associates. “In order to restore the prestige of the Parliament, we will have to hand them over voluntarily to the Police”, he said.
At some point the tone rose when Zacharias Koulias asked Giorgos Perdikis why Al Jazeera asked all the MPs to give him an interview on the issue of naturalizations.
Mr Perdikis replied that it was his honor to have spoken out against the KEP for years and that he had given interviews to Reuters and the Associated Press but refused to do so to Al Jazeera. “Syllouris set up an entire fiasco to claim that I leaked the documents,” he said.
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