The arrest of a European Parliament vice-president and four others in connection with a corruption probe involving World Cup host Qatar prompted calls on Saturday for a “root and branch reform” of the EU institution .
“This is not an isolated incident,” said anti-corruption campaign group Transparency International.
“For many decades, Parliament has allowed a culture of impunity to develop, with a combination of lax financial rules and controls and a complete lack of (or any) independent ethics oversight,” said its director, Michiel van Hulten
The Greens group in the European Parliament called for a full investigation into allegations of bribery by Qatar.
“We will not accept business as usual…” the group posted on Twitter. “We need to strengthen our rules so this doesn’t happen again.
The European Parliament “had become a law unto itself,” Van Hulten said. “It’s time for root and branch reform.”
Alberto Alemanno, a law professor based in Belgium, said “the scandal opens multiple Pandora’s boxes at once”, including “the EU’s flawed ethics system for MEPs” and the “scale of foreign influence on the EU”.
Police arrested Greek Socialist MEP Eva Kaili on Friday hours after four other people were detained for questioning.
At least three were Italian citizens or came from Italy, a source close to the case told AFP.
Kaili, 44, is the partner of one of the four, Francesco Giorgi, parliamentary assistant for the Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament, the source said.
Former Italian MP Pier-Antonio Panzeri, who served as a socialist in parliament between 2004 and 2019, was also arrested.
All five were still being questioned on Saturday, a spokesman for Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office said, adding that the investigation concerned suspected “corruption” and “money laundering”.
In Rome, a government source confirmed to AFP that Panzeri’s wife and daughter had been detained.
The arrests came after raids in Brussels that Belgian prosecutors say yielded 600,000 euros ($630,000) in cash. The police have also confiscated computers and mobile phones.
Belgian newspaper L’Echo reported on Saturday that “several bags full of (cash) notes” had been found at Kaili’s home in Brussels.
Although prosecutors did not name the country under investigation, a legal source close to the case confirmed to AFP Belgian press reports that it was Qatar.
Prosecutors had said only that the state in question was suspected of influencing European Parliament decisions through cash payments or gifts to key figures.
Kaili is a former TV presenter and one of the 14 vice-presidents of the European Parliament. In November, just before the World Cup, he met with Qatari Labor Minister Ali bin Samikh Al Marri.
In a video statement posted on Twitter by the Qatar News Agency, he said: “I think the Arab World Cup has been a great tool for … political transformation and reforms.”
In a subsequent speech to the European Parliament, he said: “Today, the World Cup in Qatar is a test… of how sports diplomacy can achieve a [sic] transformation of a country”.
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Qatar, he insisted, was “a leader in labor rights.”
In Athens on Friday, the president of the Socialists of Greece (PASOK), Nikos Androulakis, announced on Twitter that Kaili had been expelled from the party.
On Saturday, the group of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament announced that it had suspended its membership.
“We are appalled by allegations of corruption in European institutions,” they said in a statement, pledging full cooperation with investigating authorities.
A Qatari government official told AFP: “We are not aware of any details of an investigation. Any claims of wrongdoing by the State of Qatar are grossly misinformed.”
The country “operates in full compliance with international laws and regulations,” he added.
The president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, for her part, said that the assembly “stands firmly against corruption”.
“We will do everything we can to help the course of justice,” he added.
Panzeri, 67, currently heads a Brussels-based human rights organization called Fight Impunity.
The general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, the Italian Luca Visentini, was also among those arrested. The CSI said it was “aware” of the media reports.
World Cup host Qatar has struggled to improve its image in the face of criticism over its record on protecting workers and human rights.
Interviewed by AFP on Monday, Visentini had welcomed progress made by Qatar on workers’ rights, but insisted the “pressure” needed to be kept up once the tournament ends.
Migrant workers make up more than 2.5 million of Qatar’s 2.9 million inhabitants.