Facts: Qatargate
The bribery scandal in the EU Parliament has quickly been dubbed Qatargate – even though the country’s government maintains its innocence and the country has not been formally named as responsible.
At the center is an organization that officially works for accountability in conflicts. Its founder is a now-arrested Italian, who is cohabiting with the Greek member of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili, who was also arrested. The organization is in turn led by former Italian member of the European Parliament Gian Antonio Panzeri, who is also in custody.
The scandal has above all shaken the social democratic party group S&D, where Panzeri was previously part of and which has now kicked Kaili out. Belgian prosecutors also want the EU Parliament to lift its immunity against two more S&D members: the Belgian Marc Tarabella and the Italian Andrea Cozzolino.
Another S&D member, Belgian Marie Arena, has been called into question – among other things since it emerged that neither she nor Tarabella submitted accounts of their trips to Qatar in recent years.
According to a press release from Belgium’s federal prosecutor, the now 67-year-old Panzeri, together with his lawyers, has made a written settlement with the prosecutors.
In doing so, he promises to make “significant, revealing, truthful and complete testimony about the involvement of third parties and, if so, his own involvement in criminal activity,” prosecutors said.
Among other things, he now undertakes to tell about the financial arrangements made with the countries involved and also to identify the people he admits to having bribed.
Qatar and Morocco
According to the settlement, Panzeri can count on a limited punishment in the form of imprisonment, fines and confiscation of seized assets, which at the moment is estimated at one million euros – just over ten million Swedish kronor.
The Italian Panzeri is one of four people arrested in early December when Belgian police cracked down on suspected bribery and fraud linked to the European Parliament. Officially, no countries have been singled out, although leaks from the investigation have pointed to Qatar and Morocco.
Panzeri sat in the European Parliament for the Italian socialist parties DS and PD between 2004 and 2019. Afterwards, he became the head of a community organization that works with accountability, created by a compatriot who now works as an assistant to another Italian member of the European Parliament.
Greek TV star
However, what the organization mainly does has been questioned since both Panzeri and the founder – and also the latter’s Greek partner Eva Kaili – were arrested by the police.
Kaili, a former TV star who sits in the European Parliament for the Greek socialist party Pasok since 2014, has blamed everything on her partner and maintains her innocence.
Panzeri’s settlement with the prosecutors opens the way to reveal the whole truth about the mess that hit the EU quarters in Brussels like a bomb at the beginning of December.
Strikes against S group
EU Parliament Speaker Roberta Metsola has promised reforms to make it harder for ex-Members and lobby groups to get through to decision-makers.
At the same time, the tangle hits extra hard against the parliament’s social democratic group, to which both Panzeri and Kaili belong. Belgian prosecutors also want immunity from prosecution to be lifted against two more members of the group: the Italian Andrea Cozzolino and the Belgian Marc Tarabella.
According to information leaked to the Belgian press on Tuesday, the latter should have received 120,000 euros – just over SEK 1.3 million – from Panzeri.