A firm position, at a time when legal cases are shaking the European Parliament. “We have to clean up our institutions,” said Raphaël Glucksmann, chairman of the special committee on foreign interference in the European Parliament on Wednesday, at the heart of a corruption scandal involving Qatar.
“Our institutions have been far too open to the interests of foreign regimes which are increasingly wealthy and corrupt,” denounced the MEP on France 2 citing as examples “Qatar, Russia, China, Azerbaijan” and criticizing “a kind of Far West where foreign regimes can come and do their shopping”.
A former vice-president of the Parliament imprisoned
At the beginning of December, several hundred thousand euros in cash were found at the home of Eva Kaïlí, former vice-president of the European Parliament who was imprisoned in this affair. Belgian justice suspects her of having acted, in exchange, in favor of Qatari interests within the European body.
Former MEP and President of the Human Rights Commission Antonio Panzeri is also implicated while Belgian justice continues to investigate.
Referring to “an immense shock”, Renaissance MEP Fabienne Keller also acknowledged on South Radio that this scandal highlighted “the question of the influence of foreign interference” of which, according to her, the European Parliament has been “aware for several years”.