Experts are calling the incident the biggest scandal to hit European government institutions in decades. At a time when the World Cup is drawing to a close in Qatar, the name of Qatar was widely heard in the heart of the European Union in Brussels this weekend, not exactly in a good way.
Corruption scandal in the European Parliament
As early as Friday, news broke that several people had been arrested for alleged large-scale corruption, including one of the 14 vice-presidents of the European Parliament, Greek MP Eva Kaili. According to the police, the Belgian police seized around 600,000 euros in cash, computers and mobile phones. The unnamed country is said to have influenced the political and economic decisions of the European Parliament for months by paying large sums of money and lavish gifts to influential members of parliament.
According to the Belgian press, this country is exactly Qatar.
On Sunday, it became known that the Belgian police had officially charged Eva Kail and three other people with corruption. One of them is Francesco Giorgi, the spouse of Eva Kaili, who is an assistant to another MEP. He also acts as a consultant for the Middle East and North Africa region and is one of the founders of the non-governmental organization “Fighting Impunity”. THIS organization has established accountability as a focus of its work, as a central pillar of the architecture of the international justice structure.
It is interesting that accusations have also been made against former MEP Pier Antonio Panceri, who is currently, among other things, president of the aforementioned “Fight against impunity”.
The Italian news agency ANSA reported that among those arrested was another representative of the non-governmental sector – the director general of the organization “No peace without justice” Niccolò Figa-Talamanca. This organization also focuses on international criminal law, human rights and democracy promotion in the Middle East and North America.
As Politico explained,
the scandal has not only affected the European Parliament. Among those arrested also Luca Visentini, general secretary of the International Confederation of Trade Unions.
It was the construction unions that were among Qatar’s most active critics before the start of the World Cup. Eva Kaili, on the other hand, defended and praised Qatar for the changes made before the start of the championship, including labor reforms, in mid-November.
Commentators point this out
this is certainly the biggest corruption scandal not only in the European Parliament, but also in other European institutions in recent decades.
Reacting to the incident, the European Parliament’s Socialists and Democrats group, in which Eva Kaili was also active, also called for the decision on visa liberalization with Qatar to be suspended. As for Eva Kail, today parliamentarians will discuss the revocation of her political immunity in a plenary session in Strasbourg.
Eva Kaili is a socialist member of the EP, who was also one of the institution’s vice-presidents until now. Her powers in this position are suspended, but only the European Parliament can remove her from this post.
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