Qatargate
With this work, Le Soir journalists Louis Colart and Joël Matriche provide an extremely well-documented investigation into the Qatargate scandal, grouping together the acts of corruption and foreign interference involving Qatar and Morocco. The book reads like a detective novel, but with one major difference: there is nothing fictional about these intrigues and all the characters are real people. Moreover, this journalistic investigation is based on more than 5000 pages of court documents, with transcripts of interviews and dozens of phone taps, some of which have never been made public.
The most impressive aspect that emerges over the course of the book is unquestionably the amounts of money that we used to influence, more or less fruitfully, positions within the European Parliament and beyond: more than 2 million euros! 669,950 euros was located by the Belgian police force at the home of Italian Antonio Panzeri, former Social Democrat member of the European Parliament and chairman of the ‘Human Rights’ sub-committee at the time the scandal broke; 880,000 euros were found at the home of the couple consisting of the Greek Socialist deputy president of the Parliament, Eva Kaïli, and the Italian assistant Francesco Giorgi; according to statements made by the “repentant sinner” Panzeri, the Belgian Socialist Marc Tarabella received between 120,000 and 140,000 euros, of which no trace has been found (acts of corruption which the accused, who has been expelled by his own party, has always denied); again according to the reformed Panzeri, an envelope of 250,000 euros was shared between Eva Kaïli and Forza Italia MEP Lara Comi, who had already been made to repay a sum of money to the European Parliament corresponding to the amount she paid to her own mother for a false parliamentary assistant job (Comi has also been prosecuted in Italy in a corruption case known as “the soup kitchen”); 250,000 euros are alleged, again by the same source, to have been given to the Neopolitan Andrea Cozzolino, who is responsible for the coordination of emergency resolutions for the S&D group; finally, the union leader Luca Visentini allegedly received 43,000 euros, some of which (36,000 euros) was paid to the international and European trade union confederations (ITUS and ETUC respectively). Yet the mountain of money might have been even higher had the scandal not broken: Francesco Giorgi himself admits that “he and Antonio Panzeri were supposed to receive 4.5 million euros from the Qatari side over the legislative period 2019-2024:1.5 million for 2018-2019, 500,000 euros in 2019, 500,000 euros for every other year up to 2024”(our translation throughout).
What was the purpose of all this money? For Qatar, the aim, amongst other things, was to secure the dropping of accusations concerning the conditions on the building sites for the 2022 Football World Cup and those killed or injured building them as well as the abandonment of resolutions calling the country into question over its observation of human rights, the favourable vote of the Parliament for Schengen visas to be granted to its nationals. Behind it all was the employment minister, Ali bin Samikh al Marri. Morocco hoped to encourage the development of greater economic and political integration and to have the “Moroccan status” of the Western Sahara recognised. It was a member of the King’s most trusted circle, Yassine Mansouri, the “spy-in-chief of Rabat” and head of the Directorate General for Studies and Documentation, who “received Panzeri the first time in autumn 2019 and, according to the latter, freed up the funds needed to lubricate the European Parliament”.
“With its apparently boundless generosity, Qatar wanted to get its (petroleum) money’s worth: between April 2018 and December 2022, 199 actions in favour of the monarchy of the Persian Gulf were referenced by Giorgi in a spreadsheet he shared – as a hard copy or via WhatsApp, as he explained to the police – with Dr. al Marri’s right-hand man”, the journalists write. They go on to add that “a careful record was also kept by Giorgi of the intrigues allegedly benefiting the presumed Moroccan clients. 34 actions believed to have been carried out in favour of Rabat between November 2019 February 2022 are thus listed and commented upon”. However, Colart and Matriche add, “going by this avalanche of memos that Giorgi says were given to their faithful clients, virtually all parliamentary activity favourable to them was therefore brought about by themselves”. “Blessed with an undeniable nose for business, Giorgi and Panzeri found it in their interests to oversell themselves, to take the credit for any action they wish they had undertaken themselves (…). Once they found themselves under investigation, Panzeri and his former assistant became uncharacteristically modest; they stopped claiming that they had overturned the world order, admitting to nothing more than over-charging gullible clients”, the authors observe.
On 10 December 2022, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola “has been following the breaking news concerning her institution from Malta for the last 24 hours”. “Already alerted by the arrest of one of her deputy presidents (whom the Greek Pasok party had just thrown out by military force), the Maltese politician received through her secretariat a letter from the examining magistrate in Brussels inviting her to attend the search of the home of the Belgian MEP (a necessary formality: Ed). She jumped into an Airbus A320 heading for Brussels to spend the most surreal weekend of her entire career. ‘Nothing could have prepared me for that, I immediately felt that I needed to take my responsibilities and I did what I had to do’, Roberta Metsola recalls (…). ‘I feel that it is no exaggeration to say that the days and weeks that followed were some of the longest of my life’”, the journalists report, referring to the search of Marc Tarabella’s home.
In Strasbourg a few weeks later, Roberta Metsola presented a 14-point plan to reform and reinforce the institution against interference and corruption. After several months, these reforms, some of which were watered down, would be adopted. For instance, the ban on lobbying within the institution’s buildings by former members of the European Parliament be brought down from two years to 6 months. However, as the President told the authors of the work, “corruption is the enemy of democracy and unfortunately, we will always have to deal with people who are prepared to pay and people are prepared to take the money”.
“This case saw the Belgian justice system and police force subjected to unprecedented pressure. The country’s home affairs ministry indicated that a third country had put pressure on the Belgian state. The arrest warrant issued against Dr. al Marri, the presumed originator of the act of interference, was suspended a few weeks later on the grounds of goodness knows what diplomatic motivations or mutual legal assistance. Examining magistrate Claise observed that his home had been ‘visited’ while he was out by mysterious intruders who stole nothing and tried to leave no trace of having been there. A pro-Qatar fake news campaign emerged on the social networks, trying to impose a narrative of ‘Belgiumgate’ in place of ‘QatarGate’. The federal public prosecutor had never seen anything like it in his whole career”, the authors stress. They further point out that “QatarGate, more than a ‘test’ from democracies, has shed light on a great many issues (…). Having focused on attempted interference by major powers – China, Russia – the European institutions failed to notice that they will being infiltrated by states of lesser importance. Countries for which a favourable resolution, vote or press release of the European Parliament is very important. It seems unreal to us to be paying out that kind of money for such scant benefit. According to the provisional conclusions of the legal investigation and the testimonies of some of the accused, it did happen. Right under our distracted eyes”. (Olivier Jehin)
Louis Colart and Joël Matriche. Qatargate – Enquête et révélations sur le scandale qui ébranle l’Europe (available in French only). Harper Collins. ISBN: 979-1-0339-1589-8. 213 pages. €20,90
Benchmarking Working Europe 2023
In this rich overview of the social and political situation of employment in Europe, the authors stress the inability of government and political decision-makers, at both national and supranational levels, to “resolve the tensions inherent” to four transitions – ecology and climate; technology and digital; geopolitical; economic and monetary – which come together to form a “polycrisis”.
Among the key messages of the study, readers are left with a sense of the importance of reducing inequality, particularly to ensure the social acceptability of measures taken to fight climate change. Although the employment markets have bounced back after Covid-19, this rapid recovery has caused labour shortages in several sectors, the study goes on to highlight.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine saw the arrival of many Ukrainian refugees and inflation has caused a cost of living crisis, which require a “rethink of social assistance and benefits”. Increasing income from work as certainly been more of a focus in most member states and it was in 2021 in the context of the pandemic, but it has not been enough to counteract the effects of inflation. This has had the result of a considerable loss in purchasing power for workers. The authors consider that the rapid implementation of the directive on the minimum wage is therefore essential.
Energy prices continue to vary enormously from one member state to the next, “with a lack of price transparency for consumers” and these have increased greatly, worsening “energy poverty” which was already substantial – in some countries alarmingly high – even before the energy crisis. Nearly 60 million Europeans were affected by energy poverty at the end of 2022, according to estimates. Even positive developments, such as the progress of electric mobility, may stoke inequality, the authors add.
Finally, the ecological and digital transitions affect working conditions through changes to working methods and the type of work carried out. These changes deserve particular attention in collecting data on health and safety in the workplace, including in terms of inequalities. Furthermore, European legislation should be adapted and fleshed out accordingly. (OJ)
Nicola Countouris et al. (Edited by). Benchmarking Working Europe 2023 – Europe in Transition – Towards Sustainable Resilience. ETUI and ETUC. ISBN: 978-2-8745-2667-1. 174 pages. €20,00. This study can be ordered in the paper version or downloaded free of charge from: https://aeur.eu/f/awj
Le travail sous le prisme des évolutions technologiques et organisationnelles
The Reflection Group on the Future of the European Civil Service (GRASPE) has devoted its latest publication to the effects of technological and organisational development on work in the 21st century, including its “health and safety in the workplace” aspect.
Although it does not focus entirely on European civil service, the authors stress that this sector has experienced a form of “managerialisation” inspired by “new public management” theories developed in the 1970s, initially in the United Kingdom. With a centralisation of power (instead of a collaborative approach based on experience and dialogue), the uncoupling of responsibilities, the watering-down of the quality of technical expertise as a result of the priority given to mobility and the outsourcing of tasks and public service duties to agencies.
“Today, new technologies allow the disconnect of work and its geographical location, automation, but also (…) an intensification of work [with] non-negligible risks to health and welfare at work, to say nothing of eroding the collective locations for agent interaction, which are the source of creativity and efficiency”, the authors argue (our translation throughout).
The sociologist Danièle Linhart, author of the book “L’insoutenable subordination des salariés”, highlights numerous examples of how companies manipulate their image to their employees, always with the aim of increasing productivity. “The objective of these managerial techniques is to reduce the risk of challenges, clashes between the company and the employees. To do this, the organisation focuses on the individual. By measuring individual performances, one evokes in staff a desire to please their company: this means it is more likely that an employee who does not believe himself or herself to be indispensable to the company will work harder to become indispensable, so as not to be sidelined. Like all the other managerial changes, this is characterised by a desire to increase productivity. This omnipresent motivation in our economy does not benefit any employee, management or otherwise”, the authors note.
The pandemic, furthermore, greatly accelerated changing practices in work by establishing working from home as the new normal. “Working from home has completely disrupted working relationships and it is highly likely that we still do not know all the consequences it has brought in its wake. On the other hand, what we know today is the ambivalence of working from home. Although a net increase in productivity has been observed, this is not because of an improved balance between work life and home life, but because of the increase in workload on all workers. One might think that working from home would offer greater flexibility in working hours and therefore a more flexible workload, but in reality, the pressure has increased and working hours have simply got longer”, the authors explain. (OJ)
Le travail sous le prisme des évolutions technologiques et organisationnelles du 21e siècle (available in French only). GRASPE. Booklet no. 48. January 2024 125 pages. The document can be downloaded free of charge from the website of the Reflection Group on the Future of the European Public Service at: https://aeur.eu/f/awk