qatargate
Qatar scandal: What just happened at the European
Parliament?
POLITICO answers all your questions about the
influence scandal rocking Brussels.
BY SARAH
WHEATON
DECEMBER
11, 2022 4:04 AM CET
Watchdogs
say it could be the “most serious,” “most shocking,” “most egregious”
corruption scandal to hit Brussels in years.
A series of
at least 16 raids by the Belgian federal police Friday netted five people they
said had committed “alleged offenses of criminal organization, corruption and
money laundering.” The morning searches yielded €600,000 in cash, plus phones
and computers.
Initially,
the culprits weren’t major names by Brussels standards: A former member of the
European Parliament, a few parliamentary assistants, and a trade union boss,
all allegedly on the take for World Cup host Qatar. But to what end, really?
Some questioned whether — if the charges were true — Doha had really made a
smart investment.
By the
evening, however, it was clear this wasn’t just a story of some has-beens and
wannabes lining their pockets. Eva Kaili, a vice president of the European
Parliament and vocal defender of Doha, landed in police custody, according to
the Belgian federal police. The case also centers around an NGO that, until recently,
counted some of the biggest luminaries in left-wing politics among its board
members.
As this potentially superlative scandal continues to
unfold, POLITICO answers all your questions about the controversy roiling the
EU capital.
Q: Who is Eva Kaili?
As one of
Parliament’s 14 vice presidents, Kaili is one of the institution’s most
powerful players — and as a former news presenter with celebrity status in her
native Greece, one of Brussels’ most glamorous figures.
But Kaili
has also emerged as one of the most vocal defenders of Qatar. She recently
called the country a “frontrunner in labor rights” after meeting with the
country’s labor minister, despite deep international concerns about conditions
for stadium construction workers. A member of the center-left Socialist &
Democrat (S&D) party, her portfolio includes special responsibilities
related to the Middle East.
Kaili’s
partner and co-parent, Francesco Giorgi, has also been detained, according to
police and people with direct knowledge. He’s an adviser on the Middle East and
North Africa region in the European Parliament — and a founder of an NGO called
Fight Impunity, which aims to promote “accountability as a central pillar of
the architecture of international justice.”
Crucially,
Fight Impunity’s president is Pier Antonio Panzeri, a central figure in the
case.
Q: Who else is involved?
Panzeri, an
Italian ex-MEP also from the S&D was among those arrested on Friday
morning. By the evening, his wife and daughter were also nabbed by Italian
police. A warrant for their arrest, seen by POLITICO, accused Panzeri of
“intervening politically with members working at the European Parliament for
the benefit of Qatar and Morocco.”
Former parliamentary
aides, especially those with ties to Fight Impunity, are also falling under
scrutiny. In addition to arresting Giorgi, police also sealed the office of
another parliamentary assistant who used to work for Fight Impunity, currently
serving as an aide to Belgian S&D MEP Marie Arena.
Arena, who
inherited the chairmanship of the human rights subcommittee from Panzeri and
works closely with Fight Impunity, confirmed that her aide’s office was under
seal. Arena said she herself has not been questioned by police.
According
to Italian newswire Ansa, Niccolò Figà-Talamanca has also been detained. He’s
the director general of another NGO, No Peace Without Justice. Focused on
international criminal justice, human rights and promoting democracy in the Middle
East and North Africa, the organization is officially based in New York and
Rome. However, it has the same Brussels address as Fight Impunity, at 21 Rue
Ducale.
Emma
Bonino, a former liberal MEP and foreign affairs minister for Italy, founded No
Peace Without Justice. She is listed as an honorary board member of Fight
Impunity. She and Figà-Talamanca did not immediately respond to requests for
comment through Peace Without Justice.
In a sign
of Panzeri’s connections, Former French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and
former European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos are also listed as
honorary board members. Cazeneuve could not be reached for comment on Saturday;
Avramopoulos did not respond to a request.
Another top
name on Fight Impunity’s honorary board, former EU foreign policy chief
Federica Mogherini, resigned from the board on Saturday morning, according to a
spokesperson for the College of Europe, where Mogherini is now rector.
The list of
staff at Fight Impunity has apparently been deleted; however, web archives show
Giorgi and other current parliamentary assistants holding key roles in January.
Q: Is this limited to the European Parliament?
Nope. Also
detained: Luca Visentini, who just last month became secretary general of the
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). Before that, he was the
longtime chief of the European Trade Union Confederation. (He didn’t have to
move for the new role: Both the global and the European organizations are based
at the same address in Brussels, on Rue Albert II.)
Builders’
unions have been some of the top critics of Qatar’s record on worker’s rights
in the lead-up to the World Cup. But even before Visentini took over, ITUC was
a notable exception. Sharan Burrow, the previous ITUC chief, urged external
critics of the country’s labor laws to “go and have a look at a look at the
change” in a video posted by the Qatari labor ministry in June.
Q: Why would Qatar want to lobby?
The Gulf
emirate is hosting the World Cup, but rather than a public relations coup, the
tournament turned out to shine a negative spotlight on the country. Accusations
of bribery in the bidding process and slave-like conditions for foreign workers
cast doubt on the choice, and liberal critics seized on the moment to attack
the conservative Muslim country’s position on women’s and LGBTQ+ rights.
Maintaining
a good reputation is crucial, as Qatar works to hash out deals with EU
countries for its natural gas. A proposal to give Qataris visa-free travel to
the EU’s Schengen area is also moving forward in Parliament — at least, it was.
Q: How has Kaili advocated for Qatar?
Kaili has
arguably been the dean of the (sizeable group of) Doha defenders within the
S&D.
On November
24, for example, as the plenary passed a resolution “deplor[ing] the deaths of
thousands of migrant workers,” Kaili took to the floor to praise the
“historical transformation” of Qatar brought on by the World Cup. Similarly, 10
days ago, she showed up to vote in favor of visa liberalization for Qatar and
Kuwait in the Parliament’s justice and home affairs committee — even though she’s
not a member of the committee.
Kaili also
alienated MEPs on a panel dedicated to the Middle East when she freelanced her
own trip after Doha canceled the group’s visit. The Parliament’s Delegation for
Relations With the Arab Peninsula (DARP) had been planning to head to Qatar
just ahead of the World Cup in November, to visit tournament facilities and
observe labor law changes.
With barely
a month’s notice, however, Qatar’s consultative assembly, known as the Shura
Council, asked to postpone. Instead, Kaili went to Qatar the week the full
delegation was supposed to be there — and gave full-throated praise to the
emirate’s labor reforms. According to local press, she said she was there
representing 500 million European citizens who see the country’s progress as
representing common values.
“She was
somehow going behind my back,” said MEP Hannah Neumann, the German Green at the
helm of DARP. Doha was “uninviting the group that would have had a balanced
position” and “instead invited her, knowing that her statements would be less
critical.”
Repeated
calls to Kaili’s mobile phone Friday and Saturday went unanswered.
Q: How big a
deal is this?
Watchdog
groups agree on the superlatives. The Qatar scandal could be “the most
egregious case” of alleged corruption Parliament has seen in years, said
Transparency International chief Michiel van Hulten. Alberto Alemanno, a law
professor at HEC Paris, called it the “most shocking integrity scandal in the
history of the EU.”
German
Green MEP Daniel Freund, co-chair of the Parliament’s anti-corruption
intergroup, called it one of the “most serious corruption scandals in Brussels
in recent decades.”
Van Hulten said the Parliament has created a “culture
of impunity … with a combination of lax financial rules and controls and a
complete lack of independent (or indeed any) ethics oversight.” Alemmano
likewise predicted this would just be the “tip of the iceberg,” hoping a
pile-up of scandals would create political momentum for an independent ethics
system.
Q. What are people saying can be done about it?
The
Commission is due to propose an independent ethics body that would apply to all
EU institutions, but it almost certainly will not come with investigative or
enforcement power.
Freund
argued that countries that are not part of the EU should have to follow the
“relatively good lobbying rules already in force” in Brussels. At the moment,
countries don’t have to register in the EU’s transparency register of interest
groups, for example, and MEPs don’t need to report those contacts. “The EU must
improve this immediately,” Freund said.
Incidentally,
Panzeri’s NGO, Fight Impunity, is not listed in the transparency register.
That’s an apparent violation of the existing rules for EU-based groups that
want to make their case in Parliament. Under the latest transparency register
guidelines, NGOs are required to include extensive details about their funding.
Arena, the
current chair of the human rights subcommittee, has worked closely with Panzeri
and Fight Impunity, including the NGO in press conferences and traveling with
Panzeri for discussions on civil liberties.
Even as she
defended her own independence, Arena predicted that more revelations would come
out. “If Qatar is doing so, I know that others are doing exactly the same,”
Arena said. “And so we have to really prevent this kind of capacity to
influence.”
Q: How’s it going now for Qatar?
The
blowback from these accusations is already coming fast.
The S&D
has called for the visa liberalization proposal to be put on hold, and the
Green rapporteur said he would vote against the measure if it comes up for a
vote next week.
Separately,
Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee planned to head to Saudi Arabia and
Qatar in the coming weeks. Now the latter part has been canceled — meaning
Doha’s top rival gets all the attention.
Qatar’s
mission to the EU did not reply to a request for comment.
Q: What’s next in the Parliament?
Kaili has
already been suspended from the S&D group and her domestic party in Greece,
Pasok.
When the
plenary gathers in Parliament on Monday, there will be pressure on Parliament
President Roberta Metsola to strip Kaili of her duties as vice president, and
MEPs are likely to revoke her parliamentary immunity. The Left has already
formally called for a debate about the incident to be added to the agenda, with
a vote slated for Monday evening.
Eddy Wax,
Nektaria Stamouli, Hannah Roberts and Vincent Manancourt contributed reporting.
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