German conservatives are resisting plans to deprive members of the European Parliament of key posts if they don't sign up to anti-harassment commitments and training.

Others in the Parliament have expressed outrage at the stance taken by members of Germany's Christian Democrats (CDU), the party of Chancellor Angela Merkel. They say the measure is essential as MEPs gear up for May's European Parliament election, with the #MeToo campaign against sexual harassment continuing to reverberate.

“This amendment is an excellent signal of moral rectitude and a guarantee given to European citizens,” said Elisabeth Morin-Chartier, a French member of the center-right European People's Party (EPP) group who drafted one of the measures. “We must break any resistance to that.”

But resistance comes from the biggest national delegation within the EPP itself — the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).

Already adopted by Parliament's Constitutional Affairs Committee last year, one measure is contained in an amendment to a planned revision of Parliament’s rules of procedure.

"I'm not at all surprised that this proposal has come from a French MEP" — Werner Langen MEP

"Members shall refrain from any type of psychological or sexual harassment and shall respect the Code of appropriate behaviour for Members of the European Parliament," the amendment states. "Members may not be elected as office-holders of Parliament or one of its bodies, be appointed as rapporteur or participate in an official delegation or interinstitutional negotiations, if they have not signed the declaration relating to that Code."

Another amendment, proposed by Germany's Jo Leinen on behalf of the Socialists & Democrats group, says the same restrictions would apply to those who "have not registered for the specialised training on the prevention of harassment and on people management."

Daniel Caspary, the leader of the CDU/CSU members in the Parliament, said they back the principles behind the amendments and have already signed up to them. But he said one amendment is unnecessary while the second could be used unfairly against MEPs.

"We oppose the amendment that demands MEPs to sign a paper, which would oblige them to stick to rules of behavior that are already binding on any member in the European Parliament — with or without this signed paper," Caspary told POLITICO.

"The CDU/CSU-Group in the European Parliament also opposes the amendment which calls for the MEPs to take a course at the beginning of every legislature to learn about those rules of behavior. Just as a clarification, we support those rules entirely, we only oppose the additional and pointless obligations that some want to use as a disciplinary measure for MEPs," he added.

His CDU colleague Werner Langen was more blunt. "Wanting to force MEPs to sign a piece of paper so that they behave appropriately in Parliament is biggest load of nonsense I've ever experienced in Parliament," he told POLITICO. "This is a clear restriction on the freedom of a parliamentarian's mandate. I'm not at all surprised that this proposal has come from a French MEP. The French don't know what the freedom of the parliamentarian's mandate is — in France, the president gives the marching orders."

Like many other institutions, the European Parliament has come under scrutiny for its handling of harassment complaints following the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the many sexual harassment cases that came to light in its aftermath.

Last year, Parliament's Bureau, which oversees administrative matters, adopted the draft behavior code, which states that MEPs "will behave towards everyone working in the European Parliament with dignity, courtesy and respect and without prejudice or discrimination." It also declares they will “cooperate promptly and fully with the procedures in place for managing situations of conflict or harassment (psychological or sexual), including responding promptly to any allegations of harassment."

Jeanne Ponte, an MEP's assistant who has campaigned against harassment in the Parliament, said the conservatives' opposition to the amendments is "incomprehensible."

"It’s suicidal to do that a few months before an election which will bring citizens' attention on them,” said Ponte, an assistant to French center-left MEP Edouard Martin. Ponte launched a blog called MeTooEP to allow people to share accounts of sexual harassment connected to the Parliament.

Ponte said she wondered if the critics of the amendment were just “from another generation” or “have things to hide.” She said that so far only about 30 MEPs had signed up to anti-harassment training.