Portuguese MEP Maria João Rodrigues | Popow/Ullstein via Getty Images Portuguese MEP Maria João Rodrigues found guilty of ‘psychological harassment’ Rodrigues says she ‘deeply regrets’ her assistant ‘felt unease’ at work, but slams the way the committee conducted its investigation.

STRASBOURG — The European Parliament on Thursday found prominent Portuguese MEP Maria João Rodrigues guilty of "psychological harassment" toward her accredited assistant, and will impose "a penalty" on her, Pavel Telička, one of the Parliament's vice presidents, announced in a plenary session.

"After considering the written statement made by the member concerned and after having heard her, the president has decided to impose a penalty on Maria João Rodrigues ... as a result of her behaviour towards her accredited parliamentary assistant, which was such as to constitute psychological harassment," Telička said.

POLITICO reported in January that the Parliament's committee that examines harassment complaints had opened an investigation against Rodrigues, a Portuguese Socialist and champion of EU social policy, after receiving a complaint from an employee.

There were nine separate allegations against Rodrigues — a former government minister — including attempts to reduce working hours and salary of a staff member after maternity leave, asking an employee on sick leave to carry out late-night tasks and demanding staff work well beyond normal office hours.

A month before the European election in May, the announcement of sanctions against Rodrigues risks being a blow for the governing Socialist Party (PS) in Portugal and for the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the second largest group in the EU chamber. Just weeks after POLITICO unveiled the parliamentary investigation, Rodrigues was left off the PS candidate list for the European election.

In response to the committee's decision, Rodrigues said: "I deeply regret that one of my collaborators felt unease at the workplace and the fact that she never talked to me about the way she felt."

In a statement, Rodrigues said she does not agree with the committee's interpretations, adding that "most of the accusations are simply false or unjustified and refer to situations that were presented in a twisted way or completely out of context and proportion."

Rodrigues was the main coordinator of the Socialist bloc's working group on "social policy, the digital era and inequalities," and has been playing a key role in shaping the center left's platform for this May's European Parliament election. Most recently, she appeared on a campaign photo with Frans Timmermans, the lead candidate of the Socialist bloc and Udo Bullmann, the group's current president.

The Parliament defines psychological harassment as “improper conduct” that is “repetitive or systematic and involves physical behavior, spoken or written language, gestures or other acts that are intentional and that may undermine the personality, dignity or physical or psychological integrity of any person.”

In her statement, Rodrigues noted that, given her various positions, "there was indeed a high work pressure in my team."

"This was a high demanding and challenging work for all the team and, as it is natural in all demanding working environments, there were moments of stress, but my team could meet this challenge and enjoy the opportunity," she added.

In a letter to Bullmann, representatives of the S&D staff urged the group's leadership to "act and show solidarity with the victim."

"Our European Socialist family has always championed the principle of zero tolerance," they said, asking how Bullmann means to address Rodrigues' position as the group's vice president for parliamentary affairs.

"We count on you to send a strong signal that the group is coherent and really does have a zero tolerance approach."

This article has been updated.