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BRUSSELS — Because the Belgian authorities broadened their investigation into allegations that European Parliament lawmakers and others could have taken bribes from Qatar, the meeting’s president warned on Monday that unlawful lobbying posed a serious menace to the establishment.
“European democracy is underneath assault,” the president, Roberta Metsola, stated in an emotional speech to fellow lawmakers.
Days after raiding residences and official places of work and seizing proof that included a whole bunch of 1000’s of euros in money, the Belgian police on Monday launched new searches at European Parliament places of work.
The searches had been happening as Ms. Metsola addressed European lawmakers within the French metropolis of Strasbourg, the second headquarters of the Parliament.
Officers in Qatar have denied any wrongdoing.
Ms. Metsola stated that the European Parliament was launching its personal, inner inquiry and that it will proceed helping the authorities with their investigation.
The aim of the brand new searches in Brussels, the federal prosecutor’s workplace stated in a press release, was to grab info harvested from the gadgets of 10 members of the Parliament’s workers. On Sunday, there have been additionally a number of raids carried out by the police in Italy. “A complete of 20 searches have been carried out for the reason that starting of the operations, together with 19 in personal houses and the one within the places of work of the European Parliament,” the prosecutor stated within the assertion.
The Belgian authorities stated they’d secured computer systems from 10 parliamentary staffers. Since Friday, the prosecutor’s workplace stated, they’ve recovered one bag with 600,000 euros ($632,000) in money within the possession of 1 suspect, 150,000 euros in money within the house of a European Parliament staffer and “a number of hundred thousand euros in a suitcase in a Brussels lodge room.”
For the reason that raids had been launched on Friday, after 4 months of investigation, six individuals have been taken in for questioning. 4 have been charged with corruption, cash laundering and participation in a felony group, amongst them a high-profile European lawmaker from Greece, Eva Kaili. Two extra individuals had been arrested in Italy in reference to the identical case, the Belgian prosecutor’s workplace stated.
A former member of Parliament, Pier Antonio Panzeri, was additionally charged, as was Ms. Kaili’s life accomplice, Francesco Giorgi, an in depth affiliate of Mr. Panzeri’s who works as an aide to a sitting member of Parliament.
The defendants withstand 15 years in jail for the crimes they’re accused of, Belgian authorized consultants stated.
The Belgian prosecutor didn’t determine legal professionals for the defendants, and their places of work and members of the family didn’t reply to a number of requests since Friday for remark.
Ms. Kaili’s property, in addition to these of her father and sister, in her native Greece have been frozen. Her father, Alexandros, was amongst these detained by the Belgian authorities in Brussels on Friday, however her lawyer, Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, stated he had been launched with out cost.
The case has despatched shock waves by the bloc’s seat in Brussels, a spot extra related to coverage statements and bureaucrats than police raids and baggage of money.
The European Parliament referred to as for a vote on Tuesday to strip Ms. Kaili of her title as vp. It additionally suspended a deliberate vote on laws that will have paved the best way for Qataris to obtain extremely coveted visas upon arrival within the European Union. These visas are stated to have been a most important focus of the lobbying marketing campaign and alleged bribery.
Qataris want to use for a visa earlier than visiting the European Union and face a comparatively prolonged course of. The proposed new visa guidelines would allow them to get a visa upon arrival in an E.U. nation, allowing them to keep for as much as three months — a big easing of the principles on guests from the small Gulf state.
Regardless of Qatar’s rejection of the claims towards it, the drama in Brussels is reverberating globally. The scandal could show particularly troubling for the Qatari authorities at a second when its officers would possibly desire to be celebrating a crowning achievement: internet hosting the World Cup. The gas-rich nation has been working towards the occasion, which concludes on Sunday, for greater than a decade.
Regardless of a barrage of vital protection from Western media, and protests from human rights teams specializing in the authoritarian state’s exploitation of migrant employees and its criminalization of homosexuality, Qatari officers say it has been value it. The occasion has introduced followers from all over the world to the nation of three million individuals.
Authorities officers hoped the publicity wouldn’t solely elevate their nation’s worldwide profile but in addition assist battle stereotypes about Qataris, and extra broadly Arabs and Muslims. But relying on how the E.U. case unfolds, it may reinforce the notion of critics in Europe and North America that Qatar has purchased its area on the world stage.
Final month, Ms. Kaili spoke fawningly about Qatar’s labor reforms forward of the World Cup launch; she additionally visited Doha in November and praised the nation’s preparations for the sporting occasion.
“The World Cup in Qatar is proof, really, of how sports activities diplomacy can obtain a historic transformation of a rustic with reforms that impressed the Arab world,” Ms. Kaili stated throughout a debate in Parliament. “Nonetheless, some listed here are calling to discriminate [against] them. They bully them, they usually accuse everybody that talks to them or engages of corruption.”
The European Parliament is the least highly effective of the three key E.U. establishments, however because the Qatar case reveals, its members could be lively and visual.
On Monday, a extra highly effective E.U. establishment, the European Fee, was in a clumsy spot. The fee has adopted an enthusiastic public stance towards Qatar because it scours the earth to safe power sources to interchange the Russian oil and fuel misplaced since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Margaritis Schinas, the fee’s vp, for instance, lately visited Qatar and has been praising the nation’s reforms on social media. “Qatar, the primary Arab and the smallest nation ever to host the Cup, delivered reforms & deserves a world success,” he wrote on Twitter final month.
Qatar has been recognized as a key supply of liquefied pure fuel, which the E.U. must get by this and future winters’
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Fee, deflected questions concerning the investigation, however famous that “we work with Qatar on regional points reminiscent of peace and stability in Afghanistan and the Center East, and on bilateral points, reminiscent of diversification away from Russian fossil fuels.”
Requested whether or not the Belgian police had reached out to the fee, Ms. von der Leyen deferred to her workers; a spokesman for the establishment later stated it was as much as the Belgian authorities to say whether or not they had been investigating it.
Ms. von der Leyen vowed to scrutinize information of Fee members’ conferences and travels. However in the end, she stated, “so long as there isn’t any new info, we’re at the established order.”
Ms. Metsola, the European lawmaker who lamented the scandal on Monday, had a special take.
“We’d quite be chilly than purchased,” she stated.
Sarah Hurtes and Koba Ryckewaert contributed reporting from Brussels, Vivian Nereim from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Niki Kitsantonis from Athens.
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