Bribes to influence decisions Qatar: The public prosecutor’s office in Brussels is opening a hole in the euro area in an investigation that promises to be bloody for the reputation of the euro area European Parliament. And that applies above all to the socialist group. The investigations, which began this summer, led to the arrests of four Italians, including former MEPs from the Democratic Party and Article 1 Antonio Panzeri and Luca Visentini, who led European trade unions for several years. Among the personalities involved is Eva Kaili, Vice-President of the Eurochamber: the Greek socialist was stopped, interrogated and her home searched.
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The accusations
According to the Brussels public prosecutor’s office, a Gulf state would have tried to influence the economic and political decisions of the European Parliament. As? “Paying large sums of money or offering large gifts to third parties holding important political or strategic positions in the European Parliament,” the prosecutor said, without identifying the country involved or the suspects and individuals arrested. However, according to Belgian newspapers Le Soir and Knack, it is the country currently hosting the World Cup: Qatar. The investigations led to sixteen searches carried out by the criminal police at fourteen different addresses in different districts of Brussels. At Panzeri, 600,000 euros are said to have been found in cash. And in Calusco d’Adda, as part of the investigation, Panzeri’s wife and daughter were also arrested and taken to prison in Bergamo. The other two Italians arrested in Brussels are Francesco Giorgi, parliamentary assistant for the Socialists and Kaili’s companion, and Niccolò Figà-Talamanca of the NGO No Peace Without Justice.
Panzeri and Visentini, two familiar faces of the EP and European trade unions
Panzeri and Visentini are two familiar faces in Brussels circles. The former was an MEP from 2004 to 2019, having previously worked as a trade unionist in the CGIL. The second was President of the European Trade Union Confederation ETUC for eleven years. And just a few days ago he was elected General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation. Panzeri and Visentini have something else in common, apart from their constant participation in Eurochamber: their commitment to human rights. In fact, both are linked to the NGO Fight Impunity, founded in 2019 by the same former Lombard MEP. And it is precisely on the basis of human rights protection, especially with the World Cup approaching, that relations with Qatar may have developed. In Strasbourg, last November’s plenary session debated the human rights and workers’ situation in the Gulf, following the controversy over the treatment of foreign workers who helped build the stadiums for the World Cup. And even then, several in the EP had claimed that the final resolution could have been stricter. On November 1, however, Kaili met with Qatari Labor Minister Ali bin Samikh Al Marri and welcomed “Doha’s commitment” to “workers’ rights.”
Panzeri’s wife and daughter arrested
The European arrest warrant was executed today in the Bergamo area with the gang of a criminal organization against the wife and daughter of Pier Antonio Panzeri, the former Socialist and Democrat MEP who was under investigation in Brussels for corruption and money laundering. Panzeri still seems to have a home in Calusco d’Adda, the town in the Bergamo area he is originally from: It was found there where Panzeri’s wife Maria Colleoni, 67, and daughter Silvia, 38, are women are now in Bergamo im Prison, where they were accompanied due to the mandate for pre-trial detention in prison.
M5S: serious and worrying matter
“The news of alleged bribes and gifts from Qatar to influence the decisions of the European Parliament is very serious and worrying,” said the 5 Star Movement delegation in the European Parliament. “The European Parliament is and must remain a glass house for citizens and we are therefore concerned about the role being played in the alleged unlawful conduct of some of its staff. We hope that their commitment and that of Italian politicians and trade unionists will be given the right light. Today is International Day Against Corruption, we need a strong and immediate response,” he concludes.
Info “Le Soir”: the Qatar soup de corruption en plein cœur de l’Europe https://t.co/0Q8KReLkWl pic.twitter.com/GXhYEgOzD3
— Le Soir (@lesoir) December 9, 2022