The president of the parliament, Roberta Metsola, on 18 April over allegations of moral harassment.
“Ms Semedo strongly denies having engaged in any form of behaviour constituting harassment towards her former parliamentary assistant,” the MEP said in a statement on 21 April. “She is disappointed that the substantial evidence put forward by her was not taken into account by the advisory committee responsible for examining complaints of harassment.”
Semedo in her statement further claims a violation of her fundamental right to defend herself, saying she was denied a hearing by the committee together with her lawyer. She also says that information was leaked from the committee and that she questions “how the investigation was handled.”
The MEP “will bring an action for annulment of this decision before the General Court of the European Union.”
Second sanction
Already back in January 2021, Semedo was suspended for 15 days, barring her from participating in parliamentary activities, for “psychological harassment”.
Following this decision, Semedo left her Luxembourg party, the DP, and since then sits on the Renew Europe group in the European parliament as an independent candidate.
The 38-year-old , which she denied in a press release in November.
Following the first sanction in 2021, she apologised to her former assistants in a , saying that she “never intended to hurt or humiliate any of them. I realised too late that my strong messages, high standards, the way I expressed myself and the way I criticised them had hurt them.”
An official from the cabinet of then-president David Sassoli in 2021 told Politico that the report into the allegations at the time included “countless offences, insults, aggressive treatment, intimidation and attacks in public” by Semedo against three of her former assistants, calling it “very serious.”
Prime minister Xavier Bettel during a visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 19 April said: “Harassment should be condemned. This is the decision of the European Parliament and I respect it. But I strongly condemn harassment, strongly. Because the consequences can be disastrous.”