On Monday 12 December, MEPs in Strasbourg began the last plenary session of the year by coming back to the suspicions of corruption by Qatar of several people - including European Parliament Vice-President Eva Kaili (S&D, Greek) - which has shaken the European Parliament since Friday 9 December. In the aftermath of her imprisonment, the agenda was changed.
“The last few days have been particularly long, the longest of my career. The European Parliament is under attack, democracy is under attack and our way of open, free and democratic societies are under attack”, said the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, by way of introduction.
In the meantime, Ms Metsola announced that she would launch a procedure under Article 21 of the European Parliament’s Rules of Procedure to terminate Ms Kaili’s mandate. This procedure, which has to be agreed by the Conference of Presidents (CoP), will be on the agenda of an exceptional meeting of the CoP on Tuesday. “I have stripped the Vice-President mentioned of any tasks and responsibilities”, Ms Metsola added.
In addition, the vote on visa liberalisation for travellers from Qatar and Kuwait, scheduled for this week, will not take place, as the dossier has been referred to the competent European Parliament committee. This text was intended to allow nationals of these two countries to be exempted from visas when travelling within the EU for less than 90 days.
“We need to ensure that this process has not been influenced by corruption. We must also ensure that any attempt to attack our democracy has consequences. For the time being, we will not proceed with visa liberalisation for Qatar”, commented the dossier’s rapporteur, Erik Marquardt (Greens/EFA, German).
A resolution voted on Thursday
For their part, at the request of The Left group, the political groups agreed at around 7pm on Monday to debate the alleged scandal (366 votes in favour, 11 against, 3 abstentions) and to propose a specific resolution (235 votes in favour, 156 against, 2 abstentions). The Renew Europe and EPP groups are not opposed to a resolution per se, but would have preferred to wait until January and the progress of the investigation before voting on a text, while the Parliament’s own premises were searched on Monday.
This resolution should include the issues of a European ethics committee (see EUROPE 12925/19) and the European Transparency Register. This could be strengthened with a view to shedding light on meetings between representatives of the EU institutions and public relations officers from third countries.
The European Commission will make a statement, after question time, on “Qatar’s suspected corruption and the wider need for transparency and accountability in the European institutions”.
The statement will be followed by a debate in the Parliament, which one source predicts will be lengthy.
An internal European Parliament investigation will also be launched to shed light on the facts, the European Parliament President announced. “We will launch an internal investigation to look at all the facts related to the Parliament and to look at how our systems can become yet more watertight. There will be no sweeping under the carpet”, she warned, adding that more transparency would be imposed on foreign actors and “those connected to them”.
On this point, however, the president of the Renew Europe group, Frenchman Stéphane Séjourné, said that it would be better to wait until the end of the judicial enquiry to conduct an internal investigation in the European Parliament in order to have all the information. “We will not let the European Parliament nor Europe be sullied”, he stated. After Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán mocked the Parliament for being shaken by the affair, while MEPs want to sanction Hungary for its insufficient fight against corruption, he said he was “proud” to work in Belgium where such investigations are possible.
S&D will file a civil suit
On the side of the Parliament’s political groups, the S&D group, the main political group involved at the moment, had, before the start of the plenary session, announced several decisions: - excluding Eva Kaili with immediate effect and request that she be removed from her position as Vice-President of Parliament; - suspending S&D MEPs under judicial investigation; - requiring S&D MEPs who employ parliamentary assistants who are the subject of a judicial investigation to renounce all responsibility and refrain from any activity within the Parliament and the S&D Group pending the outcome of the procedure.
On this point, the Belgian Maria Arena, one of whose assistants was searched, announced that she would temporarily no longer chair the meetings of the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) until all the facts were clarified.
If the wrongdoing is confirmed, the Social Democratic Group will terminate the membership of the persons concerned. Supporting the ongoing investigation, it has filed a civil suit (‘parte lesa’) and will consider legal action against those who undermine the S&D group and the European Parliament as a whole.
The EPP, through its President, German Manfred Weber, said it was “stunned” and regretted “the serious damage to the European Parliament and the trust of citizens in the EU”, saying it would cooperate with “all judicial investigations”.
“This is the most serious corruption scandal in the history of the Parliament!”, said Manon Aubry (The Left, French). “It is shocking, but not surprising, when you see the position of some members of the Parliament on the issue of human rights violations in Qatar”, she added (see EUROPE 13070/19).
In addition, some groups are also considering “scanning” legislative files to study the texts in which the persons concerned have been involved. “It is expected that other names will come up in this affair, and this could affect any party”, a source admitted to EUROPE, saying that “around 30 names” could be involved.
On behalf of the Greens/EFA group, the German MEP, Terry Reintke, said the Parliament was “ashamed” of itself. “All the light must be shed because trust has been broken”, she said.
For the ID Group, Italy’s Marco Zanni called on some groups to show more humility, even though corruption is mostly a personal matter. Ryszard Legutko (ECR, Polish) advocated for “a critical study to be conducted by someone outside the Parliament”.
The Commission is extremely concerned
Asked about the explosive affair, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, described the allegations made in the scandal involving the European Parliament as extremely worrying and very serious.
“It is a question of people’s trust in our institutions. This trust in our institutions requires higher standards of independence and integrity” she said. She recalled that work was underway to set up an “independent (...) European ethics committee which would be established with the highest standards for all EU institutions”. In particular, she referred to the European Commission’s letter rejecting the main elements of a future European ethics committee that the Parliament had set out in its September 2021 resolution (see EUROPE 12925/19).
Mrs von der Leyen did not answer the question of possible contacts of the Belgian police with the Commission, preferring to let her services respond, nor did she answer the question on the confidence of the College reiterated to Vice-President Margaritis Schinas, who communicated on his friendly relations with the Qatari authorities. “We are checking the transparency record we have on our side”, she commented.
According to Ms von der Leyen, the EU is working with Qatar on global issues such as climate change, on regional issues such as peace in the Middle East, and on bilateral issues such as gas supplies to reduce the EU’s dependence on Russian hydrocarbons. The EU continues to make its voice heard on issues of concern, for example in the regular human rights dialogue, and a discussion on the ongoing labour market reform in Qatar was held in close cooperation with the ILO, she added.
Since Friday evening, ten police searches have been carried out in connection with the case, including one at the European Parliament. The cash, totalling nearly €1 million, was found in a hotel and at the homes of Ms Kaili and a former S&D member, Pier-Antonio Panzeri, head of the NGO Fight Impunity. This NGO, which is supposed to work for human rights worldwide, is not listed in the European transparency register. Ms Kaili’s father was reportedly caught in flagrante delicto with a suitcase full of cash. These funds were allegedly used to bribe elected officials in order to send political messages in favour of Qatar. The Middle Eastern country, which is hosting the World Cup, officially denies any involvement in the case.
The energy crisis as part of the problem for some
Beyond the earthquake within the institutions, several other actors also reacted.
“By refusing to adopt rules to detect and prevent lobbying by repressive regimes, the EU institutions, including the European Parliament, have opened the door to corruption scandals and manipulation of the decision-making process”, said the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), a lobbying watchdog.
CEO also believes that the energy crisis may have compounded the problem. “The European Union and a number of Member State governments have clearly courted the Qatari regime to secure increased gas and oil imports following the Russian invasion of Ukraine”, according to CEO. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin with Mathieu Bion and Lionel Changeur)