The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has annulled the bullying finding and subsequent sanction against former Luxembourg MEP Monica Semedo, ruling that her right to defence was not adequately respected during the proceedings. The decision was made public on Wednesday morning.
The CJEU judges identified procedural irregularities in the European Parliament’s handling of the case, particularly the failure to ensure Semedo’s right to defend herself. This ruling overturns the sanctions imposed on her in April 2023, which included the loss of her allowances for ten days.
The case originated in March 2022, when an advisory committee of the European Parliament launched an investigation into Semedo following a bullying complaint filed by her former parliamentary assistant. The committee concluded in its November 2022 report that the allegations constituted bullying.
In December 2022, the President of the European Parliament shared an anonymised version of the report with Semedo. She contested the findings and requested access to the full file, but this request was denied.
In April 2023, the Parliament’s President upheld the committee’s conclusion and imposed the ten-day allowance suspension. Semedo subsequently appealed to the General Court, seeking the annulment of the decisions.
The CJEU found that Semedo had only been provided with a summary of witness statements, which “did not reflect the substance of the testimony gathered during the investigation”, according to a press release issued by the court. Additionally, the court noted that Semedo “was not given the opportunity to ascertain precisely which items in the file formed the basis of the charges against her”.
As a result, the CJEU ruled that the decisions taken by the Parliament’s President in April 2023 must be annulled. However, the European Parliament retains the right to appeal the ruling within two months.
This is not the first time Semedo has faced disciplinary action. In January 2021, she was suspended from the European Parliament following a similar incident, which led to her departure from the Democratic Party (DP). During the 2024 European elections, Semedo ran as a candidate for FOKUS but was not re-elected to the European Parliament.
