Police Search EU Parliament Offices as Bribery Inquiry Grows

By Staff, Agencies

Belgian police have searched the European Union [EU] parliament offices as part of a growing investigation into alleged bribery and corruption, as senior EU leaders warned the credibility of the bloc was at stake.

Belgium’s federal prosecutor announced on Monday it had carried out 20 searches since Friday, including 19 at private homes and one at the European parliament offices.

Earlier in the day, Greek authorities ordered the seizure of assets belonging to an MEP implicated in the bribery investigation.

Four people have been charged with participation in a criminal organization, money laundering and corruption, Belgium’s public prosecutor announced on Sunday, as part of a major investigation into attempts by a Gulf State, named in the Belgian media as Qatar, to buy influence with large sums of money and gifts.

Police have seized computers, mobile phones and €600,000 in cash at one home, as well as €150,000 in a flat belonging to an MEP and “several hundred thousand euros” from a Brussels hotel room, according to the public prosecutor. The IT accounts of 10 parliamentary staff have been frozen to preserve data for the investigation. The purpose of the search in the European parliament was to seize data, the prosecutor said.

None of the suspects have been formally identified, but Belgian media have named the Greek Socialist MEP Eva Kaili as among the four arrested.

MEPs are expected to vote in the next 48 hours on whether to strip Kaili, who was on Monday expelled from the parliament’s Socialists and Democrats group, of her status as one of the parliament’s 14 vice-presidents.

Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, said the allegations were of “utmost concern” and raised questions about public confidence and trust in EU institutions.

The European parliament president, Roberta Metsola, on Monday said European democracy was under attack and promised an internal investigation to “look at how our systems can become yet more watertight,” including reforms for greater transparency on NGOs funded by foreign governments.

The revelations continued to reverberate through Greece on Monday where the head of the country’s anti-laundering authority, Charalambos Vourliotis, ordered the freezing of Kaili’s assets. The instruction affected both Kaili’s real estate portfolio and bank accounts.

Von der Leyen has been criticized by transparency campaigners for slow progress on her pledge to create such a body when she was seeking election as European Commission president in 2019.