Our reference: 2022-0458

Dear Mr Bonovich,

The European Parliament hereby acknowledges receipt of your message, which
was registered on 11/04/2022.

All applications for public access to documents are treated in compliance
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to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.

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The European Parliament reserves the right to ask for additional
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Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 and the European Parliament’s implementing
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related to the European Parliament. Therefore, the European Parliament
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Best regards,

TRANSPARENCY UNIT

 
European Parliament
Directorate-General for the Presidency
Directorate for Interinstitutional Affairs and Legislative Coordination
[2][email address]
[3]www.europarl.europa.eu/RegistreWeb

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Our reference: 2022-0458

Dear Mr Bonovich,

On April 11, 2022, Parliament received your request for information on
whether MEPs and their assistants can be in a godparent-godchild
relationship.

Please note that Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 concerns
public access to documents and not to information. Information may be
distinguished from a document, in particular, in so far as it is defined
as a data element that may appear in one or more documents. None of the
provisions of Regulation No 1049/2001 deals with the right of access to
information as such.

However, the Citizens' Enquiries Unit (Ask EP) provides information about
the European Parliament, its positions and activities, organisation and
rules, powers and procedures. Consequently, you request had been forwarded
to the Citizens' Enquiries Unit, which will respond to your request.

On this basis, Parliament considers your application as handled and the
file closed. Should you have any new requests for specific Parliament
documents, do not hesitate to come back to us.

Kind regards,

TRANSPARENCY UNIT
European Parliament
Directorate-General for the Presidency
Directorate-General for Interinstitutional Affairs and Legislative
Coordination
[1][European Parliament request email]
[2]www.europarl.europa.eu/RegistreWeb

References

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2. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegistreWeb

Ask EP

 
Dear Mr Bonovich,

Thank you for contacting the Citizen’s Enquiries Unit (Ask EP) of the
European Parliament on 13 April 2022.

We apologise for the short delay in responding but, in order to give you
the best answer, we first needed to consult with colleagues in another
department.

For the purposes of this answer, we have assumed that you are referring to
local assistants, whose role is to assist Members with their parliamentary
activities in their Member State of election. (In contrast, Accredited
Parliamentary Assistants (APAs), have a contract with the European
Parliament and to whom the Staff Regulations of Officials and Conditions
of Employment would apply).

Article 43(d) of the [1]Implementing Measures for the Statute of Members
(IMMS) prohibits 'to fund contracts providing for the employment or the
use of the services of Members' spouses or stable partners or their
parents, children, brothers or sisters or, in general, giving rise to any
possibility of a conflict of interest as defined in Article 62(1a)'
(emphasis added).

Article 62(1) IMMS sets out that sums paid pursuant to the IMMS ‘shall be
reserved exclusively for the funding of activities linked to the exercise
of a Member’s mandate [...]’. Subsequent paragraph (1a) further specifies
that ‘Members involved in budget implementation shall not take any action
which may bring their own interests into conflict with the financial
interests of the Union. A conflict of interest exists where the actions of
Members are unduly influenced for reasons involving family, emotional
life, economic interest or any other shared interest with a recipient’.

A situation such you describe would need to be addressed individually, in
light of the aforementioned provisions.

We hope that this information will be of assistance to you, and thank you
for contacting the European Parliament.

With kind regards,

Citizens' Enquiries Unit

[2]www.europarl.europa.eu/askEP/en

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Privacy

We will treat your message in accordance with the provisions of Regulation
(EU) 2018/1725 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the
processing of personal data by European Union institutions. See our
[5]privacy statement for more information. 

Ask EP internal reference: 203774

Your original message

Dear European Parliament, Under the right of access to documents in the EU
treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents
which contain the following information: Considering the fact that close
relatives cannot be hired as MEP Assistant, I would like to know if a
godfather-godchild type of relation is admitted? More precisely, if
someone's godfather would get elected as a MEP, would he be able to hire
his godchild as an assistant? Is this type of relation considered as a
'close relative'? Yours faithfully, Dan
 

 
[6]Sent by Ask EP the European Parliament Citizens’ Enquiries
 

References

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1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
2. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/askEP/en
3. https://cst4epc.europarl.europa.eu/cst4e...
4. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/forms/en/...
5. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/pdf/askEP...
6. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/at-your-s...