The solution to the European Parliament’s problems must come from an external “referee” rather than in-house “cabals”, MEP Alfred Sant has argued, in a veiled criticism of Roberta Metsola’s handling of a corruption scandal.

Sant told the parliament plenary in Strasbourg that, rather than being under “attack” as Metsola has argued, the parliament found itself in crisis because of the way it operated internally.

“Objectively, features in our operations invite such provocation, and find response among some of us,” he told fellow MEPs.

Sant stated that European Parliament decisions, especially on personnel, seem to be taken by cabals. Top spokespersons for the European Parliament enjoy unchecked, outside contracts and consultancies. A huge number of MEPs do not bother to record the contacts and meetings they carry out with lobbyists or entities with an interest in ongoing legislation.

He added that the parliament had also discussed areas outside its competence, delivering judgement on foreign countries “which impact on the public opinion of nations and the rating of credit agencies.”

It was not just authoritarian regimes that had an incentive to unduly influence the European Parliament, Sant told the plenary. Democratic countries and corporations also had that motive.

Sant gave his speech ahead of a vote taken by MEPs to jointly condemn the corruption scandal that has engulfed the European Parliament over the past week. Sant voted in favour of the resolution as a whole, saying he wanted to signal his “disgust and condemnation” of the scandal.

The parliament has been thrust into the spotlight following the arrest of Greek MEP Eva Kaili, who was caught red-handed with a suitcase full of cash and is believed to have been at the heart of an influence-peddling racket involving World Cup hosts Qatar.  

Belgian authorities have since charged her and three others with corruption and money laundering, sealed offices of parliamentary assistants and seized €1.5 million in cash.

Kaili was one of 14 vice presidents of the European Parliament. She has since been stripped of that role.

The scandal has badly dented the parliament’s image, top EU officials have acknowledged, and has been pounced on gleefully by some of its leading critics, such as Hungarian president Viktor Orban.

Metsola, its president, has since said that the European Parliament will be implementing a raft of reforms to avoid a repeat, improve transparency around lobbying and NGO funding, and strengthen whistleblower systems.

That plan has been welcomed by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Charles Michel.

Malta’s Prime Minister Robert Abela, however, has said that he is sceptical as to whether the parliament is in a position to fix its own shortcomings.

Speaking on Thursday at the end of a European Council summit, Abela said it “remains to be seen” whether an institution that is the product of certain systems “is suited to reform those systems.”

That vein of scepticism was also prevalent in Sant’s line of argument.

“We need a holistic gameplan of reform, established independently of the cabals that run the parliament’s administration,” Sant argued.

“That cannot be provided in-house, but has to be done by an outside, universally honoured referee bound in double quick time, to provide a deep assessment of what should be done.”

Transparency International has also called for independent ethics oversight at the parliament "to put an end to a system of self-regulation that clearly isn’t working" and said a number of opaque parliamentary institutions should be disbanded.

Sant said that the solution that MEPs were being presented with was not what is needed.

“It prejudges what the real issues might be; implicitly limits them; and serves to project the view that the Parliament is under external attack, rather than that its own flaws have become deadly”, he claimed.