The news of the arrest in Brussels of four people related to a possible bribery scheme in the European Parliament yesterday caused a real earthquake in the community capital.
The shock increased as the names of some of the suspects emerged, such as the former Italian MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, a social democrat, and the president of the International Trade Union Confederation, Luca Visentini. The final firecracker came in the afternoon, when it emerged that the Greek socialist deputy Eva Kaili, vice president of the European Parliament, has been questioned by the anti-corruption unit of the Belgian Prosecutor's Office and is being investigated. The police also searched and sealed the offices of the assistants of two Belgian Socialist MEPs, Marc Tarabella and María Arena.
The possible hand of Qatar behind the attempts to influence the voting of the institution has wrapped in a halo of suspicion and distrust all the interventions and discussions in recent weeks that concern the emirate, since the recent resolution on the situation of rights in light of the World Cup to support the proposal to exempt its citizens from the obligation to travel to Europe with a visa. "How many people are involved?" Many workers from the institution ask themselves, hooked on their mobile phones to find out the last minute of the investigation.
The International Day of the Fight Against Corruption, celebrated yesterday, began in Belgium with 16 house searches in various points of the community capital in the framework of "an extensive investigation" for crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, corruption and money laundering, Big words when it comes to an institution like the European Parliament, the Community institution in which the citizens of the Union trust the most. The agents seized almost 600,000 euros in cash, in addition to computers and mobile phones that are going to be analyzed.
"For several months, investigators from the Federal Judicial Police have suspected that a Gulf country is trying to influence the economic and political decisions of the European Parliament by delivering large sums of money or gifts" to people "with a political or strategic position significant”, affirms the Belgian Prosecutor's Office. The official communiqué speaks of "a Gulf State" which is not specified, but according to the Belgian media that reported the news, the newspaper Le Soir and the weekly Knack, it is none other than Qatar.
The four detainees were interrogated and went to court. The investigation has focused on the environment of assistants to MEPs, a position usually held by young recent graduates, who could be the recipients of bribes. According to the aforementioned Belgian media, one of the registered addresses was the headquarters of the NGO Fight Impunity, which is precisely directed by Panzeri and which has on its board such relevant public figures as the former French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, the former high representative of Politics Exterior Federica Mogherini or Nobel Peace Prize Winner Denis Mukwege.
Panzeri, 55, was an MEP from 2004 to 2019 and was part of the Foreign Affairs and Human Rights committees. His work for this small NGO dedicated to the fight against impunity has made him very present in the legislative debates of the European Parliament on these issues. One of the detainees is a former parliamentary aide, who is also a partner of Vice President Kaili. The Greek socialist was expelled last night from the ranks of her party, Pasok; Although the first information about her possible arrest was confusing, sources from the investigation have confirmed that she has been arrested, a situation that given her immunity as a member of the European Parliament would only be possible if she has been caught in flagrante delicto.
The surprise at the possible involvement in the plot of Visentini, until just a few days ago general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), was also capital. The official information agency of Qatar gave news at the end of October of his visit to Doha to meet with the Minister of Labor, Ali bin Samikh Al Marri, a meeting that does not appear on the public agenda of the ETUC. Vice President Kaili also held a meeting with this minister in the Qatari capital at the beginning of December, as could be seen on the Twitter account of the EU ambassador in Qatar, who has restricted access when the scandal broke out.
The most heated debates in recent weeks on Qatar refer to the resolution adopted on December 1, which "deplores" the deaths of thousands of migrant workers before the start of the World Cup. The closed defense of some deputies of the emirate's progress in this matter, as well as the maneuvers of some Social Democratic parliamentarians to avoid positioning themselves, are now under suspicion for some employees of the Eurochamber.
The bribery scheme could be related, according to different sources, to the proposal to stop requiring visas for Qataris when they travel to the Schengen zone. The initiative was approved this month by the Liberties commission of the European Parliament and appears on the agenda of next week's plenary session, but the European socialist group has decided to request the suspension of this vote, and all work related to the emirate, until clarify what happened. "We are devastated by the accusations of corruption in the community institutions," reads the statement published late yesterday by the European Social Democratic group, which offered its full support to the Prosecutor's Office. "As always, the European Parliament fully cooperates with the national authorities in charge of the investigation," its spokesman said yesterday.
