Elmar Brok (EPP, DE), chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Ulrike Lunacek (Greens/EFA, AT), EP Vice-President and Parliament’s Standing Rapporteur on Kosovo, welcomed the decision by the High Representative/Vice-President of the Commission to appoint an independent investigator to look into the allegations of corruption at EULEX Kosovo mission, stressing nevertheless the need for prompt and effective results.
Elmar Brok and Ulrike Lunacek issued the following statement today: “We welcome the decision by the High Representative, Federica Mogherini, to appoint an independent legal expert to look into the allegations of corruption at EULEX Kosovo. However this is only a first step. We reiterate that it is of utmost importance to urgently shed light on all the allegations of corruption and on the internal investigations that have been carried out in secret immediately.
This is a prompt reaction that demonstrates the will of the new High Representative to listen and respond to the Parliament demands. However many questions still remain to be answered.
Indeed, following the exchange of views in the Foreign Affairs Committee with the Civilian operations Commander and the Director for Western Europe and Balkans on Monday evening, we have sent a letter to the High Representative raising all the questions that were left unanswered and that should receive a prompt reply.
We believe that EULEX has played, and still plays, an important role in Kosovo. That is why these allegations have to be looked into immediately, and transparently, to establish clearly what has occurred. We are in no way prejudging the outcome of the investigation. However, there must be zero tolerance policy on issues of corruption.
We give our support to the work of the independent investigator and to the new Head of Mission Meucci. We expect to be informed promptly and to see concrete results.
The Parliament will consider different parliamentary investigation methods, including setting up an investigation committee, after we have received the reply from the HRVP.
Finally, we take note as a positive step the availability of the High Representative to share with us useful confidential documents regarding the investigation and the allegations, via appropriate channels. We will continue to follow this matter closely and actively. ”