The demand came during a debate in Parliament on the issue on Wednesday.
In the same debate, former Parliament President Martin Schulz was controversially accused of impeding a case of alleged sexual harassment.
The identity of the 15 deputies thought to be under investigation, and the allegations made against them, have not been publicly divulged. Nor is the action, if any, that has been taken against any of them by Parliament’s authorities.
However, several female employees in Parliament have come forward in recent days to report alleged sexual violence, including rape, in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the #MeToo campaign.
UKIP MEP Margot Parker called for more disclosure and information of the relevant files, or case notes, on the 15 MEPs in question.
A parliament spokesman told this website: “The statement by the MEP (Margot Parker) is absolutely untrue. There have not been 15 cases of sexual harassment reported to the Advisory Committee dealing with harassment between MEPs and accredited assistants, nor, obviously, has the bureau ever held a meeting behind closed doors about this.”
Margot Parker responded to the statement, telling The Parliament Magazine: "The European Parliament denied at the start of the week that there were any sexual allegations. Now, they are back tracking like crazy. The truth about sexual harassment in EU institutions will all come out in time if we keep up the pressure for transparency. "
Parker said in the debate: “Sexual harassment is shockingly all too common in in today’s society and in this European Parliament.Whilst statistically women are over five times as likely as men to experience sexual assault,[1] it is important to note that sexual harassment and abuse effects both women and men. We’ve all heard stories and rumours of it going on for many years.The very place that claims to legislate against this sort of disgusting behaviour, is turning a blind eye to its practice."
The idea that MEPs or staff are using their positions of power to perpetrate abuse is shameful and unacceptable.I want some clarification, can members of the bureau tell us all they know about their in camera meeting at the end of last year, regarding 15 MEPs that are accused of sexual harassment?
“These files should be opened up to public scrutiny.”
"The European Parliament denied at the start of the week that there were any sexual allegations. Now, they are back tracking like crazy. The truth about sexual harassment in EU institutions will all come out in time if we keep up the pressure for transparency" Margot Parker MEP
In the debate, UK MEP Catherine Bearder called for MEPs to undergo training to help combat the problem and said Parliament should offer a guarantee to staff who report such allegations that they will not lose their jobs.
The debate heard that 95 per cent of women who report allegations of sexual harassment are fired.
Bearder, an ALDE group deputy and quaestor, said, “Victims are not coming forward and that means cases are still going unreported. This is not acceptable. As with other big institutions, Parliament has a long way to go on this issue but the aim has to be to make sure that it provides a fair and safe workplace environment for all its staff.”
Several MEPs called for zero tolerance of the issue and urged the Commission to table an EU directive outlawing violence against women.
Others called for an audit of sexual harassment claims which have been made by female and male staff working in Parliament.
Deputies said that reporting alleged abuse in Parliament had been historically discouraged because of a climate of acceptance that had existed in the assembly.
But Polish ECR group member Jadwiga Wiśniewska said the investigation into the new sexual harassment claims from parliamentary staffers should go beyond a mere audit.
She told the plenary debate that such allegations of misconduct by MEPs were unimaginable.
Her group colleague Julie Girling invited female staff in Parliament who are victims of sexual harassment to “come and work in my office where I will provide you with a safe haven.”
She said the Parliament “must seize the momentum” of the Weinstein case in order to “do something about this problem in our own workplace.”
Girling also applauded the brave parliamentary staff who had spoken out about the issue recently.
“Why is it that officially there have been only 10 cases of alleged harassment in Parliament reported since 2014? To me, this suggests that the threshold for reporting such incidents is too high, so we have to look at ways at making it easier for staff to report such cases” Sophie In’t Veld MEP
Fresh allegations include a staffer who said she had been raped by a parliamentary member of staff in 2016. She has said she had received no support since the incident allegedly happened.
Dutch member Sophie In’t Veld asked, “Why is it that officially there have been only 10 cases of alleged harassment in Parliament reported since 2014? To me, this suggests that the threshold for reporting such incidents is too high, so we have to look at ways at making it easier for staff to report such cases.”
Ukip MEP Gerard Batten claimed that Schulz, who recently stood in the German election campaign against Angela Merkel, had impeded an investigation into claims of sexual harassment against an unnamed MEP.
Batten said he had first aired the issue about Schulz, who is no longer an MEP, late last year. Schulz was unavailable for comment on Wednesday.
European trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, who also took part in the two-hour exchange, said, “Every female MEP probably has a story to tell about sexual harassment, sexual language and even violence. It is not new of course but what is new is that there is now a global movement - #MeToo - saying this is not acceptable and something has to be done about the shame and silence surrounding this issue.”
The Swedish official told MEPs, “There are a lot of laws and code of conducts in Europe to cover all kinds of such violence which are important. But we have to focus on implementation and, here, there is work to do. I am sure this Parliament can do more about it on a formal basis but the important thing is to support victims.
“So, let’s make sure that not only that the #MeToo campaign is heard but that it is also transformed into action and that we do more to eradicate this problem.”
Parliament will vote on a motion and resolution on the issue on Thursday.