An anti-corruption operation by the Belgian police in the European Parliament, in connection with Qatar, provoked very strong reactions in Brussels on Saturday, elected officials and NGOs calling for an urgent debate on an improvement in the rules of ethics in this major institution of the EU.
In the evening, the President of Parliament Roberta Metsola announced by the voice of a spokesperson the first sanction in this affair: the Greek Eva Kaili, arrested on Friday by the Belgian police, had her title and powers withdrawn. of vice-president.
“A culture of impunity”
“This is not an isolated incident,” reacted the organization Transparency International the day after the police operation. “For several decades, Parliament has allowed a culture of impunity and a total absence of independent ethical control to develop”.
This control in the institution is “defective”, added on Twitter Alberto Alemanno, professor of law at the College of Europe in Bruges.
Qatar suspected
Five people including Eva Kaili were arrested on Friday in Brussels after at least 16 searches in an investigation into suspicions of “substantial” money payments by a Gulf country to influence the decisions of MEPs.
The federal prosecutor’s office did not name the country, but a judicial source familiar with the matter confirmed to AFP that it was Qatar, as revealed by the media The evening and knock.
“Any allegation of misconduct on the part of the State of Qatar testifies to serious misinformation,” a Qatari government official told AFP on Saturday.
The affair broke out in the middle of the 2022 World Cup, while the organizing country must make efforts to defend its decried reputation for respect for human rights, in particular those of workers.
MEP suspended
And the file took on an additional dimension when the identity of the fifth person arrested on Friday evening was confirmed.
Greek MEP Eva Kaili is a 44-year-old former TV presenter who has become a figure of social democracy in her country. She had until Saturday evening the title of vice-president of the European Parliament like 13 other elected officials.
“In light of the ongoing judicial investigations carried out by the Belgian authorities, President Metsola has decided to suspend with immediate effect all the powers, duties and tasks that have been delegated to Eva Kaili in her capacity as Vice-President of the European Parliament” , announced in the evening a spokesperson for Roberta Metsola.
“Bags full of tickets”
As of Friday evening, Eva Kaili had been excluded from the Greek Socialist Party (Pasok-Kinal), which would also like to see her give up her seat in the European Parliament. The Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group in the European assembly announced its suspension “with immediate effect”.
On Saturday, the hearings of five suspects continued in Brussels, according to a spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office.
A possible placement in pre-trial detention by the investigating judge must be decided within 48 hours after the arrest, ie Sunday at the latest.
The investigation by Belgian judge Michel Claise targets facts of “corruption” and “money laundering” in an organized gang, according to the prosecution.
“Bags full of tickets”
On Saturday the Belgian newspaper L’Echo claimed that “several bags full of banknotes” had been discovered at the Brussels home of Eva Kaili, which the police searched after having surprised the father of the elected official himself in possession of a large amount of cash in a “suitcase”.
According to information confirmed to AFP, at least three suspects arrested on Friday are Italians or of Italian origin: the former socialist MEP Pier-Antonio Panzeri (who sat from 2004 to 2019), the secretary general of the Trade Union Confederation (CSI) Luca Visentini, as well as Francesco Giorgi, a parliamentary assistant from the S & D group, companion of Eva Kaili.
Suspicious statements
Eva Kaili went to Qatar in early November where she welcomed the reforms of the emirate in this sector in the presence of the Qatari Minister of Labor.
“Qatar is a leader in terms of labor rights,” the Greek also said on November 22 from the podium of the European Parliament.
These comments, which had then caused a stir in the ranks of the left, came back to the minds of many MEPs when the news of Eva Kaili’s arrest was announced.
French socialists denounced “a very serious scandal”, while environmentalists Michèle Rivasi and David Cormand pointed to “a culpable complacency” of certain social democrats (S & D) during the debate on Qatar at the last plenary session .
The next session, which starts Monday in Strasbourg, promises to be hectic. French MEP Manon Aubry (radical left) demanded a new debate on the same subject, castigating Saturday “the aggressive lobbying of Qatar”.