by Police on Monday launched a new wave of raids against political figures in Brussels over alleged corruption involving Qatari interests, in a scandal that threatens to destroy European Union democracy.
“The European Parliament,” its president, Roberta Metsola, said in a session in Strasbourg on Monday, “is under attack.”
The focal point of that attack, for now, is the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group in Parliament. In Brussels, police raided the parliamentary office of Greek MEP Eva Kaili, who is currently in a prison cell as she awaits her court appearance, scheduled for Wednesday.
Meanwhile, her Strasbourg colleagues expelled her from the S&D group as her fellow MEPs prepared to strip her of the title of vice-president.
Several other S&D members – not directly implicated but under scrutiny for their links to the accused and their defense on behalf of Qatar – have also agreed to walk away from key posts, including MEP Marie Arena as chair of the subcommittee on human rights of the Parliament.
In all, Belgian police recorded six arrests (although two individuals, Kaili’s father and union boss Luca Visentini, were released) and searched 19 private homes. The cops’ loot includes €600,000 in a private house, “several hundred thousand euros” in a suitcase stolen from a Brussels hotel and €150,000 in Kaili’s apartment. His family’s assets in Greece have been frozen.
After blocking access to computer equipment over the weekend, police said they recovered the data on Monday. In addition to Kaili’s office, two assistant offices were also marked as “Access Denied” on Monday afternoon. On one were F. Giorgi, Kaili’s companion, also under arrest, and on the other E. Foulon and G. Meroni. The latter is a former assistant to Pier Antonio Panzeri, the former MEP at the center of the alleged scandal.
“European democracy is under attack,” Metsola told the plenary as he promised to open an internal investigation.
The request for verification it was echoed by MEPs in Strasbourg and across the bloc. “Europe’s credibility is at stake,” said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
To the watchdogs, however, the threat to Europe’s credibility has always been clear. The scandal is not an attack but a “self-inflicted damage” tweeted The Good Lobby founder Alberto Alemanno in response to Metsola’s speech. “The European Parliament and most of its members have historically resisted tougher integrity rules and an effective enforcement system.”
The EU Transparency Register is full of loopholes and voluntary elements: Parliament’s human rights subcommittee, for example, hosted Panzeri’s NGO Fight Impunity to report, even though it was not included in the register for transparency.
Based on its activities, Fight Impunity should have been entered into the database, the registry secretariat said in an email. But since they’re not legally required to register, there’s no way to punish them for violating the registry’s code of conduct.
Similarly, a proposal for an independent EU ethics group has been blocked in the Commission. Vice President for Transparency Věra Jourová cited legal obstacles and lack of interest in an ethical body that would apply to all institutions and actually have executive power.
On Monday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed a new determination to create a general oversight body. “It is very important to have not just strong rules, but the same rules that cover all EU institutions and not allow any exemptions,” she told reporters.
But for all the talk about protecting trust and promoting transparency in EU institutions, senior officials have resisted early opportunities to put it into practice. Commission spokeswoman Dana Spinant quickly closed the questions when reporters tried to pressure von der Leyen over tweets from Commission vice-president Margaritis Schinas in which she praised Qatar’s labor reforms ahead of the World Cup.
It was a similar (virtual) scene in Strasbourg, where a Parliament spokesman refused to answer questions by reporters in an online press conference.
“Our way of open, free and democratic societies is under attack,” Metsola said in Strasbourg. “The enemies of democracy, for whom the very existence of this Parliament poses a threat, will stop at nothing. These evil actors, linked to autocratic third countries, would have weaponized NGOs, trade unions, individuals, assistants and members of the European Parliament in an attempt to subjugate our processes”.
In Budapest, Viktor Orbán, who leads a country that the European Parliament has declared ‘no longer a democracy’, seized the moment. Hungarian Prime Minister tweeted a morning greeting to parliament, with a photo of former world leaders in stitches. The caption: ‘And then they said… EP is seriously concerned about corruption in Hungary’.
Contributors are Pieter Haeck, Sarah-Taïssir Bencharif, Clothilde Goujard, Nektaria Stamouli, Gabriel Rinaldi, Wilhelmine Preussen and Suzanne Lynch.
