The case of corruption involving Qatar and Morocco revealed the lack of transparency within the institution. Since these revelations, languages have been dismissed on the practices of number of elected officials.
by Virginie Malingre (Brussels, European office) and Jean-Pierre Stroobants (Brussels, European office)
In recent days, memory has returned to them. Many elected officials from the European Parliament have suddenly notified the administration of the information they are required to give but that they “forgot” to provide in time. Some have reported a trip to the invitation of a foreign state, others declared gifts received. Even the president of the institution, Roberta Metsola, proceeded to this update, while her predecessors did not feel concerned by this obligation. “Ms. Metsola does not keep the gifts she receives, she gives them all to the administration,” said her spokesperson.
Since the revelations on the attempts to interfere with Morocco and Qatar, led by tickets – 1.5 million euros have been discovered so far – presents and plane tickets, MEPs want to be impeccable. Their precipitation to put themselves in order illustrates the shortcomings of an autoresal institution where elected officials decide the rules they must apply, check if they are effectively and agree on possible sanctions. Without the Belgian investigation, which revealed the scandal, “the train would have continued”, assures a European official. “Belgian justice has done what Parliament has not done,” said Alexander de Croo, Belgian Prime Minister.
Today, a vice-president (fallen) of the European Parliament, the Greek socialist Eva Kaili (excluded from her party, the Pasok), and her companion, the parliamentary assistant Francesco Giorgi, are in prison. Like the former elected socialist Italian Pier Antonio Panzeri, main actor of the organization uncovered. This man, who, according to one of his former colleagues, sometimes admitted “not touching a ball” in certain areas of foreign policy, convinced several regimes that he could be useful to them. Two other socialist MEPs, the Italian Andrea Cozzolino and the Belgian Marc Tarabella, still protected by their parliamentary immunity, are also in the crosshairs of the investigating judge Michel Claise.
“Confidence in the European Parliament that has been taken twenty years to build was destroyed in a few days,” said the world Roberta Metsola recently. Europeans discovered, amazed, the practices they thought of being from another time. “We must stop pretending to discover the extent of a problem that was widely known,” was annoyed, on January 3, the Belgian ecologist deputy Saskia Bricmont. Whenever a conflict of interest or another reprehensible behavior has been reported, “the consequences have been almost zero. Because parliamentarians are themselves responsible for monitoring conflicts of interest in their colleagues”. As for the rare parliamentary assistants who tried to alert an abnormal situation, they lost their jobs.
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