The EU’s General Court has annulled the findings of harassment and the penalty imposed on former Luxembourg MEP Monica Semedo, citing procedural irregularities that violated her rights of defence, in a ruling likely to have a wider impact on internal procedures within the European Parliament.
Semedo, who was first elected in 2019, was suspended for ten days in April 2023 after a former employee filed a formal complaint in 2022 alleging bullying.
The Luxembourg MEP appealed the sanctions, arguing the internal parliamentary procedures violated her rights, particularly her right to legal representation and to documents.
The General Court ruled in her favour on Wednesday, annulling the decisions adopted by the President of the European Parliament.
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The judgment concluded that the former MEP, who was suspended twice during the last parliamentary term for alleged bullying and who failed to win re-election last year, did not receive sufficient access to evidence and that her rights of defence were violated.
“A person accused of harassment is entitled to disclosure of a summary of the statements of the various witnesses heard during the investigation procedure,” the ruling stated.
The court found that Semedo did not “have the opportunity to ascertain the detailed content of the documents in the file serving as the basis for the allegations against her in the decisions concerning her”, and that “not all of the written evidence was furnished to her by the Committee or the President of the Parliament”.
The European Parliament, which now has two months in which to appeal the ruling to the higher court, the Court of Justice, could be forced to revise its internal procedures, which have already faced criticism from groups like “MeTooEP”, advocating against bullying and sexual harassment within the institution.