THE
QATARGATE FILES
Qatargate’s ‘useful idiots’ still work inside EU
Parliament
Six MEPs and an official were part of a
cash-for-influence network, whether they knew it or not, according to
investigative files seen by POLITICO.
BY EDDY
WAX, ELISA BRAUN, GIAN VOLPICELLI AND TIM ROSS
DECEMBER
22, 2023 4:02 AM CET
BRUSSELS —
Three sitting members of the European Parliament have already been charged in
the so-called Qatargate case, the biggest corruption scandal to hit the
European Union institutions in decades.
They aren’t
the only alleged participants in the network, according to a vast trove of
leaked documents from the police investigations seen by POLITICO.
Six other
serving MEPs and one parliamentary official have been identified to police as
among those caught up in the scheme — in which politicians and their associates
allegedly took money or gifts from Qatar and other foreign governments in
exchange for influencing EU policy and debates.
They have
not been charged in connection with the case. But their names are among those
given to the Belgian authorities investigating the allegations by two of the
chief suspects: former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, the network’s alleged
ringleader, and his former assistant Francesco Giorgi.
POLITICO
has elected not to name them for legal reasons. The allegations in the
documents include the claim that some of these MEPs benefited from a deal in
which they were promised as much as €250,000 by a foreign official to fund
their 2019 European election campaigns.
In another
case, one MEP allegedly received a watch. The EU official accepted as much as
€20,000 in cash, Panzeri and Giorgi claimed.
Soldiers and idiots
“In
Panzeri’s network, there are two kinds of actors: those who are aware of the
organization and corruption, those who feel obliged,” Giorgi told
investigators. The members of the network, he said, were described as
“soldiers.”
“Most of
them were in Panzeri’s eyes ‘useful idiots,’ and they were not aware of the
system that he had put in place,” Giorgi added, in one of the documents seen by
POLITICO.
Giorgi also
claimed that his former boss used different “levers and manipulation
techniques” to convince people to do as he asked. These included: “his
credibility as a former member of the European Parliament and President of
Fight Impunity [an NGO]; money; romantic/sexual relationships; exchanges of
favors like for example helping them to find a job.”
In addition
to Panzeri and Giorgi, three serving MEPs have been arrested and hit with
preliminary charges of corruption, money laundering and participation in a
criminal organization. All three — Eva
Kaili, Marc Tarabella and Andrea Cozzolino — deny involvement and can attend
Parliament and vote as normal.
The
cash-for-influence scandal rocked the EU when it emerged in December 2022,
cutting to the heart of its values of democracy, integrity and human rights,
and triggering deep soul-searching in Brussels and Strasbourg, where the
Parliament is based.
According
to investigators, the governments of Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania are
suspected of enlisting the paid services of Panzeri and his associates as part
of a concerted effort to manipulate the proceedings of the EU in their favor.
The fact
that Panzeri and Giorgi said individuals alleged to be part of the network
continue to work as normal at the heart of EU democracy will raise fresh
concerns over how much more may yet emerge in the scandal, just months before
the European Parliament election. It also puts the conduct of the investigation
by the Belgian authorities — and Parliament’s handling of the scandal — under
renewed scrutiny.
Broader network
Both Giorgi
and Panzeri have changed their stories since they were arrested — Panzeri
initially denied involvement and then later struck a plea deal. Giorgi also
admitted his role but has since argued through his lawyer that his statements
to police were made under duress.
A cache of
hundreds of pages of police evidence, which POLITICO has seen, shed new light
on the case.
The six
MEPs and the EU official are allegedly among a broader network of around 15
people identified by Panzeri and Giorgi in their — often contradictory —
evidence to detectives investigating the case.
A European
Parliament spokesperson said the institution cannot comment on ongoing judicial
proceedings but said it “remains fully cooperative with judicial national
authorities” and is “firmly against” corruption. “It will deal swiftly with any
potential request to waive MEPs’ immunity received from their end, if and when
it is requested,” the spokesperson added.
Qatar and
Morocco have denied wrongdoing in the case and did not reply to requests for
comment. Panzeri’s lawyer declined to comment.
Francesco
Giorgi’s lawyer Pierre Monville said: “The elements you mention are not based
on evidence but on what Mr Panzeri told Mr Giorgi. Whatever Giorgi has declared
or written during his detention was under extreme pressure and preoccupation
regarding the fact that his daughter was left without her parents.”
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