The ethical frameworks of the audited EU institutions: scope for improvement

Summary:

In this special report, we assessed whether the ethical frameworks of the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Council, and the European Commission were well established. We examined all the levels of staff and Members, and analysed the awareness of the ethical framework of the staff of institutions by means of a survey. The implementation of the ethical frameworks in the audited institutions did not form part of the audit.

We concluded that, to a large extent, the audited institutions established adequate ethical frameworks with room for improvement. We found that there is no common EU ethical framework governing the work of the representatives of Member States in the Council. Our audit also identified some weaknesses and areas for harmonisation of the ethical frameworks, as well as examples of good practices. The audited institutions should improve their ethical frameworks, work together to harmonise and make further efforts to share good practices on ethical matters, and improve staff awareness and perception of the ethical framework and culture.

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