And now there are other big names on the European left who risk ending up in jail and keeping company with Antonio Panzeri, Greek Eva Kaili and her partner Francesco Giorgi. Brussels prosecutors are preparing to ask the European Parliament to lift the immunity that has so far kept out of the investigation some exponents of the Socialist & Democrat faction, whose names appeared in the investigative documents of the money and favors network Qatargate, which the Panzeri NGO , Fight Impunity, distributed to weaken the Union’s position vis-à-vis the Doha regime. The (partial) recordings of those arrested and, above all, the evaluation of the documents and computers confiscated after December 9 made it possible to expand the circle to include other parliamentarians. But this is where the investigation had had to stop so far.
The protection that the European Parliament offers its members is in fact much broader than what the Italian legal system provides. In Italy, the judiciary is free to investigate MPs and Senators, requiring only authorization to arrest or search them. Instead, European rules state that every MEP has the right to “immunity from arrest warrants and judicial proceedings in the territory of any other Member State”, in addition to the immunity guaranteed by the laws of their country. A shield that has kept members of Panzeri’s “network” safe until now.
Now the investigators are calling for the immunity to be lifted. The motion would concern Italy’s Andrea Cozzolino and Belgium’s Marc Tarabella and could be extended to another Belgian, Marie Arena, in a second moment. All three belong to the S&D group, proving that Panzeri’s candidacy for the cause of Qatar (but also for Morocco and Mauritania) drew exclusively from the formation to which he himself belonged for three consecutive mandates.
The request for the waiver of immunity is addressed to the Chamber’s spokesperson, Roberta Metsola of Malta, who immediately forwards it to the Legal Affairs Committee for an initial opinion. The final vote, however, belongs to the classroom. And it’s hard to imagine MPs rejecting the prosecutor’s request after the devastating echo the investigation has left in the heart of local democracy. From that moment, Tarabella and Cozzolino are investigated and arrested. Moreover, the fact that their position is difficult is sufficiently confirmed by the elements that have already appeared. In her memos, Kaili specifically mentioned Cozzolino’s name, assuming that Giorgi “kept” some of her property. Three days before Christmas, Cozzolino had released a lengthy statement declaring himself irrelevant to the affair, asking to be questioned by the judges and also announcing his intention to have his immunity waived. But apparently the announcement did not follow the facts. And so the Belgian prosecutor’s office decided to continue the attack.
The dossier sent to Metsola must contain all the items collected by the investigators so far, most of which are still classified. And when the dossier arrives in the classroom and becomes public, there will be many surprises.