By Daniel Mihai Dragomir – Translated from Stiripesurse.ro, Belgian spies were investigating widespread foreign interference in the EU’s decision-making process when they discovered the corruption and bribery scandal that engulfed the European Parliament. The country’s secret services broke into the home of one of the main suspects, a former Italian MEP, where they discovered 700,000 euros in cash, revealing an alleged plot related to Qatar, the host of the World Cup, which has tarnished EU institutions, The Telegraph reports.
Belgium’s State Security Service is believed to have launched a large-scale investigation into foreign interference in the EU in 2021. “It was a game changer that state security worked on for more than a year, together with foreign intelligence, to map suspicions of bribing MEPs by different countries,” Vincent Van Quickenborne, the Belgian minister of justice, told the Belgian daily Le Soir.
The police have so far carried out more than 20 raids, most of them in Belgium but also in Italy, with MEPs warned that immunity rules could be revised to prevent future scandals from occurring in the future.
So-called friendship groups, formed by MEPs as forums to discuss links with countries outside the EU and considered vulnerable to external influence, are also likely to be banned.
Details of the secret operation emerged when Francesco Giorgi, the partner of Eva Kaili, the former Vice-President of the European Parliament, allegedly confessed his role in a bribery network.
Morocco and Qatar have close ties
The network, believed to have been created by Moroccan intelligence, may have worked to increase Qatar’s influence ahead of several key EU decisions on visa liberalisation and an aviation pact in 2021.
Morocco and Qatar have long had close ties and it is believed that Doha may have been able to use Rabat’s services in Brussels, thanks to its alleged pre-established intelligence network in the Belgian capital. Kaili, an incumbent Greek socialist MEP, and Francesco Giorgi are detained by Belgian authorities after being arrested on December 9th on suspicion of corruption.
Investigators found 900,000 euros in cash during searches at their home and in a hotel room occupied by Eva Kaili’s father, Alexandros Kailis.
Since she was arrested, Eva Kaili has pleaded guilty to herself. However, Francesco Giorgi testified that his role in the corruption scandal was to deal with cash payments to MEPs, naming an Italian and a Belgian who he said took bribes, according to the Belgian newspaper Le Soir.
Belgian police earlier this week published images of more than 1.5 million-euro banknotes seized during raids linked to the corruption investigation.
They found 600,000 euros in the home of Pier Antonio Panzeri, a former Italian MEP and head of an influential NGO. He allegedly received financial aid from Abderrahim Atmoun, a high-ranking Moroccan diplomat who did not comment on these allegations.
Agents broke into Panzeri’s home in July, where they discovered 700,000 euros in cash, which had been left in place, any trace of the entry was erased and an unclassified file was sent to Belgian judge Michel Claise. “It was a game changer that the state security worked on for more than a year, together with foreign intelligence services, to map suspicions of bribery of MEPs by different countries,” Mr Quickenborne said.
Bruxell has previously been described as the “espionage capital of Europe”, with Belgian authorities launching investigations into suspicions of Russian and Chinese influence over the EU. Russian agents with high-level authorization from the Kremlin were caught operating as diplomats and sent poorly paid commercials to the Belgian capital.
While the Belgian authorities are responsible for investigating crime within the EU institutions, the country’s secret services are not allowed to investigate political parties or MEPs, unless they consider that foreign agents are working in the country.
Urged the EU to put its house in order
The Belgian state has long feared that elements of the Moroccan intelligence service – the General Directorate for Studies and Documentation – have worked to influence European politicians.
At a summit of European leaders in Brussels on Thursday, Georgia Meloni, Italy’s Eurosceptic Prime Minister, urged the EU to bring order. “What is important now is the reaction, which must be serious and decisive and on which the credibility of the union depends. Italy will demand that full light be shed on what is happening,” she told reporters.
French President Emmanuel Macron had to defend his trip to Qatar to witness his country’s victory in the football World Cup semi-final against Morocco and demanded that the EU not judge until “all the full data” of the investigation appears.
Roberta Metsola, president of the European Parliament, told EU leaders that the institution is affected by “foreign actors trying to undermine us”. “My message will be that there will be no impunity, it will not be hidden under the carpet, there will be no business as usual,” she added. “There are too many ways in which decisions are made that could be made better. Too many informal groupings that are potentially easier to influence. Too many organisations whose transparency of funding is not clear.”
In response to the scandal, MEPs supported a plan to block all qatar-related work, including visa liberalisation and aviation agreements, until further notice. Officials will set a pledge to investigate corruption in non-EU countries.
Rules will also be introduced to prevent MEPs from becoming victims of the lobbying efforts of foreign powers. Under the plan, MEPs and political parties will be banned from accepting donations from outside the EU, while foreign lobbyists and former MEPs will be forced to register in a mandatory transparency register.
They will also be required to declare their assets at the beginning and at the end of their mandates in order to determine whether they have profited from their mandate.
