Spiraling Corruption Scandal Spells Credibility Doomsday for Brussels

A ballooning graft scandal involving allegations of concerted efforts by Qatar and Morocco to bribe European Union officials ahead of Qatar’s sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup has engulfed Brussels, threatening to torpedo the bureaucracy’s credibility on the global stage. Belgian police have already seized $1.6 million in more than a dozen raids around Brussels and Italy, leaving little doubt that a culture of corruption has been allowed to fester in the heart of Europe. “Qatargate” is arguably the biggest political earthquake to shake the EU since its foundation, with repercussions rippling across the Continent. These start and may end messily at Brussels, yet capitals as distant as Doha as well as Paris, Rome, and Athens could yet feel the brunt of the Belgian prosecutor’s office’s efforts to clean up the institutional rot. There are multiple reports indicating that as many 60 members of the European parliament could be implicated in the widening scandal. Ultimately, what police turn up will bring more mayhem to Brussels than to Qatar, which would hardly be the first country to seek influence by buttering up or outright bribing public officials. Belgian investigators say Qatar sought a so-called open skies deal for its airline with respect to the European market. In a move that renders Qatar’s denial of involvement somewhat implausible, Qatari officials this week issued a veiled threat to cut natural gas supplies to Europe, having previously invoked a plaintive variation on the “but it wasn’t just us” defense. In the meantime, Brussels has placed Qatar’s official relations with the European parliament on hold.Against a backdrop of stubborn inflation and an intractable cost-of-living crisis, the multiplying accounts of stashes of illicit cash have held Europeans in even more rapt attention than the hypocrisy of the lawmakers who are ostensibly paid to represent their interests. Few have come to embody this ignominy more than a young Greek socialist parliament member, Eva Kaili, who before the World Cup kicked off praised Qatar as “a pioneer in labor rights.” According to news reports, Belgian police subsequently found nearly $160,000 in the MEP’s suitcases. At an Italian politician’s home, more than $600,000 was found.Ms. Kaili, who was booted from both the European parliament and Greece’s socialist party, is currently in custody at Brussels pending a hearing at the Palais de Justice on Thursday. Her partner, Francesco Giorgi, a parliamentary advisor, is also in jail.The Belgian newspaper Le Soir reported that Qatar’s labor minister, Ali Ben Samih Al Marri, was in regular contact with European lawmakers throughout 2022 and met with Ms. Kaili at Doha in October. Italian newspaper La Stampa reported that another Greek politician, Dimitris Avramopoulos, a former European commissioner, is now also implicated in the probe in which Qatar is shaping up to be more symptom than disease. Mr. Avramopoulos was allegedly paid more than $60,000 between February 2021 and February 2022 by an NGO called Fight Impunity. That organization was founded by a former European parliament member, Pier Antonio Panzeri, who has been arrested in connection with Qatargate.According to various European press reports, Belgian police wanted to bring their probe to a head while the World Cup was under way, seeking to maximize its impact, but even with the tournament now over the far-reaching investigation reverberates far and wide. Watching the European parliament collapse like a house of cards has in some quarters reinforced the idea that Brexit was prescient. One such watcher is Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party who between 2010 and 2016 was leader of the Brexit Party. He also served as a member of the European parliament for nearly two decades, between 1999 and when Britain bolted from the EU in 2020. Weighing in on the graft scandal at Brussels, Mr. Farage wrote in the Telegraph that “the only fact that has amazed me about this sleazy situation is the sheer efficiency and guile shown by the Belgian intelligence services in exposing it.” He said that while British MPs are subject to the law, at Brussels “MEPs enjoy immunity against prosecution in pursuance of their role as MEPs wherever they are…. The fact is that the EU bigwigs have constructed a body of politicians and bureaucrats who make up what is, in effect, a separate class.”It is by most estimations a bloated and cosseted class. Consider that the European parliament has not one but 14 vice presidents, of which Ms. Kaili, a former television presenter, was one. The tasks that fall within their purviews are not abundantly clear, but Politico reports that MEPs earn salaries of more than $9,400 a month, plus travel and expense allowances adding up to nearly $10,000 per month.Mr. Farage expressed his hope that Belgian law enforcement would audit the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm. “After all,” he wrote, “that is where the real power to make laws and decide policy lies.”The peripatetic president of the European Commission, Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen, has so far mostly tiptoed around the sleaze uncovered by the Qatargate probe. How much more of it the highly taxed European public will tolerate is an open question. As Europe’s top bureaucrat, Ms. von der Leyen has called for the creation of an independent ethics body — in other words, more bureaucracy.That it will not bring joy to all Eurocrats is an understatement, but the investigation will likely accelerate in the new year.

Spiraling Corruption Scandal Spells Credibility Doomsday for Brussels

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