Revelations that make you react. Several NGOs and elected officials are calling for reforms in the European Parliament, while four people, including the vice president of the institution, were charged and jailed this Sunday for “membership of a criminal organization, money laundering and corruption” in relation to Qatar.
“We are not going to act as if nothing had happened (…). We must reinforce our rules so that it does not happen again. (…) The time has come for a profound reform”, in particular, the institutional anti-government and anti-corruption NGO Transparency International called on Saturday. They want an end to a “culture of impunity” in Brussels.
Five arrests were made in the European capital on Friday night, after at least 16 searches. The vice president of the European Parliament was in the process of being suspended from office, before being charged and imprisoned this Sunday. Eva Kaili was detained in possession of “ticket bags”, according to a judicial source familiar with the matter.
An investigation has been opened into suspicions of “substantial” payments of money by a Gulf country to influence the decisions of MEPs. If the federal prosecutor’s office has not named the country in question, a source familiar with the matter indicates that it is Qatar.
Not an “isolated incident” for an NGO
For Transparency International, these revelations are not a surprise. “This is not an isolated incident,” says the NGO.
“For several decades, Parliament has allowed a culture of impunity to develop (…) and a complete absence of independent ethical control,” he firmly condemns.
“This scandal opens several Pandora’s boxes at once,” Alberto Alemanno, a law professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, said on Twitter. He denounces, among other things, “the foreign influence that weighs on the EU” and an “imperfect European ethical system among the deputies.”
Loiseau “approached” by Qataris
Renaissance (ex-LaREM) MEP Nathalie Loiseau also called for changes, after revealing in France Info on Saturday that she had already been “approached by Qatari lobbyists a few months ago”.
“They thought I was too critical of Qatar and threatened me in some way… I let them know that I had taken screenshots of their messages and that I reserved the right to react if something happened,” he said.
Reacting to the revelations, the former minister in charge of European Affairs encouraged “fighting the transmission belts of interference.” “If these people have no convictions but only bank accounts, they have nothing to do in the European Parliament”, he firmly condemned.
hearings in progress
The case broke out in the middle of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, as the host country, under fire from critics, was trying to defend its reputation for respecting human rights, especially those of workers.
Hearings of five suspects continued in Brussels on Saturday, according to a spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office. A possible preventive detention by the investigating judge must be decided within 48 hours of the arrest, that is, no later than this Sunday.
Among the four detainees are a parliamentary assistant attached to the group of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), who is a colleague of Eva Kaili, as well as former Italian MEP Pier-Antonio Panzeri, also a socialist. The other two are a director of an NGO and a union leader of Italian nationality.
Source: BFM TV
