MEPs today censured Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, for using his office in his campaign to become president of the European Commission and for pushing through the appointment of close aides to civil-service posts in the Parliament’s administration.

In a plenary session in Strasbourg today (16 April), 365 MEPs voted in favour of a report on the Parliament’s spending in 2012 to which the passages criticising Schulz had been attached, with 190 voting against and 82 abstaining.

Many MEPs were outraged by a decision on Monday (14 April) by the Parliament’s bureau – the main decision-making body – to approve the appointment of three Schulz aides to senior civil-service posts. Herwig Kaiser, a German who is the deputy head of Schulz’s private office, was appointed director-general for personnel, while Lorenzo Mannelli and Maria José Martinez were appointed to directors’ posts.

“Why do we bother voting in this Parliament at all if the bureau can do as it deems fit?” asked Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-leader of the Green group.

Jacek Protasiewicz, a centre-right Pole who chaired the session as one of the Parliament’s vice-presidents, said that the bureau had voted by a large majority in favour of the appointments.

Today’s resolution also calls for the appointment of Markus Winkler as director-general of the presidency department to be cancelled and for the post, which covers functions previously dealt with by the Parliament’s deputy secretary-general, to be abolished. Winkler, currently Schulz’s chief of staff, was appointed to the post in September but is expected to take up his new role only once the Parliament goes into recess.

Winkler, a German, has worked for Schulz almost without interruption since 1996. 

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The amendments criticising Schulz had been put forward by centre-right MEPs, and an aide to Schulz suggested they were politically motivated.

Schulz had removed another amendment that accused him of withholding information about an investigation by OLAF, the EU’s anti-fraud office, into corruption allegations against John Dalli, who was forced to resign as European commissioner for health. MEPs challenged Schulz’s authority to rule the amendment inadmissible and could now take their case to the European Court of Justice.