Belgian police have carried out further raids on the offices of the European Parliament as the president of the legislature vowed to launch an internal probe into corruption allegations and the bloc’s top official called for the creation of an EU-wide independent ethics body.
rosecutors, who are investigating the alleged influence of a Gulf state in the European Parliament, accused four people over the weekend of corruption, involvement in a criminal organization and money laundering.
Deputy Parliament Speaker Eva Kaili from Greece has been relieved of her duties.
Prosecutors declined to identify the country suspected of offering parliament officials cash or gifts in exchange for political favors.
Several members of the assembly and some Belgian media linked the investigation to Qatar. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry has denied any wrongdoing.
Police carried out yesterday’s raids on the European Parliament offices in Brussels to seize computer data from 10 parliamentary assistants, prosecutors said.
Officials conducted 20 raids as part of an investigation launched four months ago.
“Several hundred thousand euros were seized in three different places: 600,000 euros in the apartment of one of the suspects, several hundred thousand euros in a suitcase that was confiscated in a room of a Brussels hotel and about 150,000 euros in an MEP’s apartment,” said the Public prosecutor.
Ms Kaili was kicked out of the Socialist and Democrat faction of the legislature yesterday with immediate effect.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the allegations against Ms Kaili threatened EU citizens’ trust in the bloc’s institutions.
She said the independent ethics panel she proposed would cover lobbying activities at the European Commission, European Council and European Parliament, as well as the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Auditors.
MEP Barry Andrews said the European Parliament had an important role to “denounce human rights abuses and corruption around the world” but said recent revelations about alleged “efforts by Qatar to buy influence in the European Parliament have the potential seriously undermining that role”. .
“More generally, this shocking scandal has highlighted the need for urgent fundamental reform of Parliament’s approach to ethics, transparency and corruption,” Andrews said.
Foreign Secretary Simon Coveney said in Brussels yesterday: “It is harmful. We need to get to the bottom of this.
“This is a scandal that we need to uncover the truth about so we can ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
