Brussels Playbook: Qatargate widens
Brussels
Playbook
By STUART
LAU
with ZOYA
SHEFTALOVICH
GOOD
MORNING. I’m Stuart Lau, POLITICO’s EU-China correspondent, standing in as your
Playbooker this breakfast hour. Barbara Moens will be with you Wednesday.
BRUSSELS
HEATS UP: For those of you reading this from some Mediterranean destination
enjoying last-minute sun before your return flight, Brussels has just recorded
the warmest–ever New Year’s Day in history. It’s yet another piece of strong
evidence against Greta Thunberg’s small-dick–energy critics. Then on Monday,
the political scene heated up, with Belgium’s justice officials requesting two
more members of the European Parliament be stripped of their immunity amid the
ongoing Qatargate investigations. The ball, for now, is in the Parliament’s
court.
PROSECUTORS
WANT MORE: European Parliament President Roberta Metsola confirmed the latest
twist in the Belgian investigation which engulfed one of her 14 vice presidents
— Eva Kaili, who remains in custody. While Metsola didn’t name the two MEPs in
question, an official close to the matter told POLITICO’s Eddy Wax they were
Marc Tarabella and Andrea Cozzolino, respectively Belgian and Italian lawmakers
from the Socialist and Democrats grouping, to which Kaili also belonged. An
S&D insider also confirmed the identities to Eddy. The Belgian prosecutor
declined to comment.
Verbatim:
“Following a request from the Belgian judicial authorities, I have launched an
urgent procedure for the waiver of immunity of two Members of the European
Parliament,” Metsola wrote on Twitter on Monday, adding: “There will be no
impunity. None.”
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from the United Nations World Food Programme: If emissions are not reduced, 30%
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and our partners like the European Union, fighting hunger is deeply connected
to climate action.**
‘No
impunity. None’ — read that as a knowing nod to the Fight Impunity NGO at the
center of the Qatargate scandal, which former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri
established in 2019 with his former assistant Francesco Giorgi, who has worked
as Cozzolino’s assistant since 2019.
Background:
MEPs last month removed Kaili as a Parliament vice president, and along with
Giorgi, Panzeri and “No Peace Without Justice” NGO boss Niccolò Figà-Talamanca,
she is now facing preliminary charges of corruption, money laundering and
participation in a criminal organization. Kaili’s immunity was automatically
stripped in the sprawling corruption saga linked to alleged bribery by Qatar
and Morocco, as she was considered to have been caught in the act of committing
an offense. (The Belgian prosecutor found €150,000 in cash at her Brussels
apartment after the scandal broke on December 9.)
WHAT
HAPPENS NEXT: The Parliament will officially start the lengthy procedure for
removing legal protection for Tarabella and Cozzolino when MEPs next gather in
Strasbourg on January 16 (at which point their names will officially be made
public). At that time, the Parliament’s legal affairs committee will give the
two MEPs a chance to say their piece and rubber-stamp the measure before
handing it over to all lawmakers for a final vote, which will likely get an
overwhelming majority.
READY TO
COOPERATE? In a statement shared with POLITICO, Tarabella’s lawyer Maxim Töller
said the MEP would support his immunity being lifted. “Since the beginning of
this investigation, Marc Tarabella has repeated that he is at the disposal of
the judiciary and has even asked to be questioned rapidly in order to defend
himself. He has equally said that he would not hide behind his parliamentary
immunity,” the lawyer wrote. Cozzolino, who also denied wrong-doing, publicly
asked late last month for his immunity to be lifted.
S&D
take: In a statement to POLITICO, the S&D group said its members would
“follow, in the context of the European Parliament, the procedures foreseen in
a responsible and constructive manner.”
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