At the beginning of this month, the President of the European Parliament, Ms Roberta Metsola, announced on Twitter that “effective immediately, Russian company representatives are no longer allowed to enter European Parliament premises”.
SEAP has contacted the Transparency Secretariat for more details, and it has been told that this decision has been taken during June’s Conference of Presidents in the European Parliament.
In an internal note seen by SEAP, the reason behind this decision is that Russia continues to spread false information through multiple channels, including state-owned companies. The ban on access to Parliament’s premises has been extended to:
- a Russian headquartered company that is listed in the Transparency Register;
- a company that is subject to sanctions under Council Regulation 269/2014.
The Parliament is also having ongoing discussions with the Council and the Commission with a view to formally ban Russian interest representatives from the Transparency Register.
SEAP contacted President’s Spokeperson, Jüri Laas for further clarifications who mentioned that “this decision has been communicated to the Members and that no further communication on this topic is foreseen”.
*Written by Valentin Calfa, SEAP Policy Assistant
Please feel free to reach out for any questions at secretariat@seap.be