At the European Parliament in Strasbourg, January 17, 2023. JEAN-FRANCOIS BADIAS v AP
On everyone’s lips and on everyone’s lips. In Strasbourg, for the European Parliament’s back-to-school plenary session on Tuesday, January 17, there were only “Qatargate” and “Marocgate,” those suspected corruption and money-laundering cases that have rocked the institution since the December 9 arrest of Vice-President Eva Kaili. So much so that a debate on the subject had to be organized as a matter of urgency in the afternoon.
Also read: Article reserved for our subscribers “Qatargate”: Investigation reveals rudimentary system of corruption
“The exposure of this story came as a shock to Romania, one of the countries where the continent’s citizens have the greatest trust in the European institutions,” confides Romanian Siegfried Muresan of the European People’s Party (EPP), who said the issue was up at the center of all his conversations during the holiday season. From Copenhagen to Madrid, via Vilnius, Warsaw and Vienna, the deputies heard everything: from accusations to insults to taunts. They came out shaken. “We have the feeling that between December and the return in January the tone of the MEPs has changed, there is an awareness,” believes Claudia Gamon, Austrian Liberal MEP for Renew. At home, people associate the European Parliament with corruption. They just heard that and remembered it. It’s terrible. »
“I still have this feeling of betrayal, disappointment, anger inside me,” adds Vice-President of Parliament Katarina Barley (S&D, Socialists and Democrats). It must be said that all the protagonists involved in the corruption story come from his group. Whether Eva Kaili, but also the Belgian Marc Tarabella, who is now suspected of having received 120,000 euros in cash, and the Italian Andrea Cozzolino. Their parliamentary immunity is due to be lifted in February. “From now on we have to act quickly and change things,” the German member of the Bundestag continued. The Frenchwoman Manon Aubry, patron of the Unified Left (GUE), says nothing else. On the podium, she demands that “we tackle the problem at its root: the culture of impunity, of opacity that leaves the door wide open to any interference! “.
“Build Integrity”
This is the aim of Parliament President Roberta Metsola, who in her inaugural speech recalled that “we must win back the trust of European citizens”. On January 12, she proposed fourteen measures “to strengthen the integrity, independence and accountability” of the institution. In particular, she mentions the ban on lobbying for a year at the end of her term of office, greater publicity at meetings of MPs, the abolition of friendship groups and declarations of possible conflicts of interest.
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