In Washington they are known under the street where most of the offices or institutes dedicated to lobbying are located, K Street. In Brussels, they don’t have a nickname, but they do have brawn: more than 12,000 registered lobbyists – a figure that some studies say could be double that since not all lobbyists carry the label – mingling with European officials in the Belgian capital to make out to promote policies that are conducive to the interests they represent: a cause like the environment or human rights; but also powerful corporations or, as has now been shown with Qatargate, the interests of countries outside the Community Club. And they don’t always do it according to the rules, as the scandal surrounding the alleged bribery of MPs and senior officials by Qatar and Morocco shows.
Since the first arrests and recordings of what is already the biggest corruption scandal in the Eurozone, the Qatargate conspiracy has revolved around an alleged NGO, Fight Impunity, almost a week ago. Its founder, former Italian MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, is the prime suspect and remains in custody on charges of corruption, money laundering and involvement in a criminal organization.
At first glance, the organization with the impeccable name (who doesn’t want to fight impunity?) had no less impeccable letters of recommendation: their headquarters are on Rue de Ducale, one of the most elegant streets in central Brussels, on the same block as the US -Embassy and the residence of the Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo. And it’s two steps away from the so-called European neighborhood, home to the community institutions he’s suspected of trying to influence with money from states outside the Union.
In addition, the Board of Directors includes well-known names such as former French socialist Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege, or prominent former EU personalities such as former High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica an Mogherini, also Italian Emma Bonino or the former Greek immigration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos.
Since the scandal broke, one after the other quickly distanced themselves. “I don’t know Panzeri, I haven’t seen him in my life,” Cazeneuve told Radio Franceinfo. “I accepted this volunteer role two or three years ago but never heard from it again. I asked for my name to be removed,” added the French politician, whose request was not granted: names were removed, yes, but not his, but those of the workers’ list, which included another of the defendants in Qatargate. Francesco Giorgi, the partner of Eva Kaili, who is also in prison and until this week Vice-President of the European Parliament, is also in custody, like her partner and like Panzeri (CIS), Luca Visentini.
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In recent days, the “Fight Impunity” plaque has also disappeared from the portal where it was based, along with 15 other NGOs, including No Peace Without Justice, which until this week was owned by another defendant in the conspiracy, Niccolo Figa-Talamanca. This Italian, the fourth defendant on probation since Wednesday, appears on several of the boards of the other organizations with which they share headquarters and which have remained strictly closed this week.
According to Belgian newspaper Le Soir, which uncovered the scandal, there is no trace of Fight Impunity in official records, apart from their charter of incorporation as a non-profit company in September 2019 – shortly after Panzeri resigned his post as MP. His name is also not found in the transparency register of the European Commission, in which NGOs such as Oxfam or Human Rights Watch appear.
Despite this opacity, nothing prevented Panzeri’s NGO from receiving funds from the European Parliament: according to Le Soir, at least two MEPs from the Socialist and Democrats (S&D) Group, chaired by Spain’s Iratxe García, supported a request for funding of 175,000 euros , of which they received at least 43,750 last year. They are Belgian Marie Arena, who has been suspended from her duties in S&D for her alleged involvement in the case (although she has not been charged at the moment), and Portuguese Isabel Santos, another honorary member of Fight Impunity.
The facade worked, at least until last Friday’s police coup in which their headquarters were raided and their chief leaders arrested. Among the activities they organized this year is an “International Conference on the Future of Human Rights” held in the Eurochamber in mid-June, presented by Panzeri and Figa-Talamanca and with the President of the European Parliament as prominent speakers occurred, the conservative Roberta Metsola or the Congolese Mukwege. Prominent personalities from the human rights movement also took part in the sessions as speakers and were moderated by MPs of different persuasions.
Fight Impunity, which is believed to have been used as a pretext for Panzeri’s alleged deals to influence “the economic and political decisions of the European Parliament,” as Belgian prosecutors said when exposing the operation, has visibly exploited a favorable environment as in Brussels in the presence of lobbyists who, at least up until now, have been walking quietly through the corridors of the European institutions.
One of the problems denounced long before Qatargate was their sheer numbers and opacity. In the Commission’s latest transparency register opened on the networks, there are 12,411 lobbies, but it is estimated that there are at least double the number actually operating, as reported in 2016 by Transparency International, which estimated the number of lobbyists who work for these organizations in Brussels with 91,000 people a whole small town. More than 6,000 of them had a pass to enter the European institutions, like Panzeri, who, as a former MEP, walked quietly through the Eurochamber until he was arrested. As of 2016, the growth curve of lobbies in Brussels has skyrocketed, according to data from the European Commission.
The origin of those who influence those responsible for the EU – mostly through the legal channels of professional lobbying – is also significant: only a quarter (3,483) of the people registered in the transparency register are non-governmental organizations or citizens’ platforms. Closely followed by “Enterprises and Groups” (3,026) and trade and business associations (2,619). The small number of registered “established by third countries bodies, offices or networks” is striking, namely just under five. There are increasing indications that not only Qatar but also Morocco is behind the plot allegedly led by Panzeri and his NGO.
There are many organizations that have been calling for strong action in recent days for Brussels to stop being a swamp – Donald Trump’s favorite word to define the other world capital of lobbying, Washington – and for transparency in its interactions with public and private interests elevated. One of the main demands is to make the previously voluntary registration in the Commission’s transparency register mandatory and to use it in all institutions, including the European Parliament, which is preparing measures to avoid new scandals.
German Conservative MEP Dennis Radtke has also called for NGOs to be subject to “the same rules as parties, parliament and other institutions” with disclosure of their funds and donations, because if not, “they will continue to be a portal for dubious organizations or even states that want to buy policy decisions, as we are now seeing,” he stressed.
The left-wing factions in the European Parliament are the strongest in demanding transparency from the lobbying world. But at the same time, they ask for caution and not just make them pay for sinners. The left’s co-leader, French Manon Aubry, recalled this week that she herself worked in a very active NGO in the EU, Oxfam, before taking her seat. “Ask any real NGO and they will have no problem showing the media and interviews they have (in the European Parliament) because those are things they show publicly,” Aubry said in response to a question from the newspaper.
“We know that in the world of influence everything is designed to serve interests and that sometimes foreign powers can use fake NGOs, but we must not put them all in the same bag because it is the NGOs themselves that they are heading towards have pushed more transparency, like Transparency International,” he recalled.
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