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As the Belgian police launched second wave of raids At the European Parliament, a stunned Brussels elite has begun to grapple with an uncomfortable question at the center of the Qatar bribery investigation: how deep is the rot?
So far, four people have been jailed, including parliament vice-speaker Eva Kelly, on charges of corruption, money laundering and participation in a criminal organization in a police inquiry launched by Belgian prosecutor Michel Claeys.
After the initial shock of those arrests, several officials in parliament told POLITICO they believed the charges would be limited to “a few individuals” who allegedly got away by accepting hundreds of thousands of euros in cash from Qatari interests .
But that theory was beginning to unravel by Monday evening, as Belgian police launched another series of raids on parliament offices in Strasbourg, one of the European Parliament’s two sites for the first meeting since news of the arrests broke on Friday. MPs were gathering. ,
With searches of 19 residences and offices – apart from parliament – six people were arrested and at least around €1 million was recovered, some EU officials and activists said they believed that more names would be pulled into the wider net – and that the Qatar bribery scandal was symptomatic of a much deeper and more widespread problem with corruption, not only in the European Parliament, but across all EU institutions.
These critics argued that in Parliament, the lax monitoring of members’ financial activities and the fact that states were able to contact them without recording the encounter in the public register is a recipe for corruption.
Beyond Parliament, he pointed to revolving door of senior officers Those who go after a term in the European Commission or Council to serve private interests stand as evidence that institutions are being closely monitored. Others invoke Jacques’ legacy center commission – who resigned en masse in 1998 – as proof that no EU institution is immune from illegal influence.
“The courts will determine who is guilty, but what is certain is that it is not just Qatar, and it is not only individuals who have been implicated in foreign influence operations”, said Raphael Glucksman, a French lawmaker from the Socialists and Democrats who represents parliament. The head of a committee against foreign interference in the U.S. told POLITICO in Strasbourg.
Micheal van Halten, a former lawmaker who now heads Transparency International’s EU office, said that while serious cases of corruption involving bags of cash were rare, “there is a high probability that there are names in this scam”. that we haven’t heard of yet. Undue impact on a scale we haven’t yet seen. This doesn’t need to include bags of cash. This includes trips to far-flung destinations paid for by foreign organizations may be – and in that sense it is a much wider problem.
Adding to the problem, he said, was the fact that Parliament had no built-in protections for internal whistleblowers, despite voting in favor of such protections for EU citizens. Back in 1998, it was a whistleblower denouncing mismanagement in the Senter Commission that precipitated the mass resignation of the EU executive.
Glucksmann also called for “extremely thorough reform” of a system that allows lawmakers to multitask, leave oversight of personal finances up to a self-regulating committee appointed by lawmakers, and state Provides actors access to MPs without their registration. meet in public.
“If the parliament wants to get out of this, we have to work hard and do extremely deep reforms,” said Glucksman, who previously named Russia, Georgia and Azerbaijan as countries that influence political decisions in the parliament. was asked to do.
To begin to address the problem, Glucksman called for an ad hoc investigative committee in parliament, while other left-wing and Greens MPs urged reforms, including naming an anti-corruption vice-president to replace Kelly. Expelled from S&D Group late Monday night, and set up an ethics committee to oversee all EU institutions.
glass half full
However, others were less convinced that the corruption probe would reveal new names, or that the facts revealed last Friday spoke to a wider problem in the EU. Asked about the extent of the bribery scandal, a senior official in Parliament, who asked not to be named to discuss the confidential deliberations, said: “As serious as it is, it is a matter of individuals, some who made very bad decisions. The investigations and arrests show that our systems and processes worked.”
Valerie Heyer, a French lawmaker with the centrist Renew group, struck a similar note, saying that while she was deeply concerned about the “risk to our democracy” associated with foreign interference, she did not believe it was a scam. Alludes to “generalized corruption”. in the European Union. “Unfortunately, there are bad apples,” she said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is facing criticism over COVID-19 vaccination deals with Pfizer, refused to answer questions about her Vice President Margaritis Sinchinas’ ties with Qatar at a press briefing. did, causing fury in the Brussels press corps.
The Greek commissioner represented the EU at the World Cup opening ceremony last month, and has been criticized by MEPs in recent months over his tweets praising Qatar’s labor reforms.
Von der Leyen was silent on the Greek commissioner when asked about the European Parliament’s, and specifically Shinas’s, stance on the Commission’s response to the Qatar corruption scandal.
However, von der Leyen voiced support for the creation of an independent ethics body that could investigate wrongdoing in all EU bodies.
“these rules [on lobbying by state actors] All three are equal across EU institutions,” the senior parliament official said, referring to the European Commission, the Parliament and the European Council, the roundtable of EU governments.
The division over how to address corruption shows how members of the Brussels system – which includes thousands of well-paid bureaucrats and elected officials, many of whom enjoy legal immunity regarding their jobs – are against the scrutiny. Tries to mold yourself could jeopardize revenue or derail careers.