This was announced on Saturday evening by a spokeswoman for Metsola.
A corruption story in relation to Qatar, host country of the World Cup, has shaken the European Parliament and calls for the political consequences to be heard. Belgian police have arrested the vice president of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili, and four other people on charges of “group corruption and money laundering”. She was arrested and has since been suspended.
The scandal revolves around suspicions that Qatar has tried to influence the decisions of the European Parliament with large sums of money and gifts.
There were a total of five arrests in Brussels on Friday; in her was the Greek Kaili, one of the 14 vice presidents of the EU Parliament apartment arrested. Four Italians were also arrested, including Kaili’s partner, Francesco Giorgi, parliamentary assistant of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament.
“Several bags of bills” found in Kaili’s apartment
EU Vice-President Katarina Barley (SPD) called on Kaili to step down on Saturday. “Prosecutorial investigations are always the point where you say, as a politician, that you can no longer represent an institution,” Barley told ARD in the evening. “As such, we expect her to resign of her own free will.” Barley and Kaili both belong to the Socialist Group in the European Parliament.
According to information from the Belgian newspaper “L’Echo”, the investigators had found “several bags full of banknotes” in Kaili’s apartment. Police ordered the premises to be searched after finding Kaili’s father with a large sum of money in “a suitcase”.
Raid: cash seized for around 600,000 euros
Also arrested were Pier Antonio Panzeri, former Social Democrat MEP and current head of the non-governmental organization Fight Impunity, and the general secretary of the International Confederation of Trade Unions (CIS), Luca Visentini. Two other arrests by Italian government circles were also confirmed to the AFP news agency in Rome on Saturday: the victims are Panzeris’s wife and daughter.
According to the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office, during the raids the police seized cash worth around 600,000 euros as well as data carriers and mobile phones, which are now under evaluation. According to a spokesman for the Brussels investigation authority, the five suspects were further questioned on Saturday.
Are the allegations really about Qatar?
The prosecutor’s office said the country involved in the corruption case was a “Gulf state”. He is suspected of “influencing the economic and political decisions of the European Parliament” “by paying large sums of money or giving substantial gifts”.
Circles familiar with the investigation confirmed media reports from AFP news agency that the Gulf state was Qatar. A Qatari government official told AFP that his country was “not aware of any details of an investigation”. Any “allegation of wrongdoing by the State of Qatar” is unfounded.
CDU MP “stunned”
German MEPs have expressed their outrage at the events. He was ‘astounded that apparently top members of the European Parliament allowed themselves to be bought for huge sums of money to campaign politically for states trampling on human rights and on safety at work,’ said the CDU MEP Dennis Radtke.
The president of the German Bundestag’s Europe Committee, Anton Hofreiter, said in an interview with “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” (RND) that if the allegations were true – for which there is evidence – Kaili “shouldn’t just withdraw from the presidency of the EU Parliament, but also to resign from the mandate”.
The pressure on Kaili mounts
Kaili’s own party has also called on Kaili to withdraw from the European Parliament. A member of the Greek Socialist Party said the party “is pressuring Ms Kaili to give up her parliamentary seat”. The 44-year-old had already been ejected from the party on Friday.
Former TV presenter Kaili told the European Parliament on Nov. 22 that the World Cup in Qatar was “concrete proof of how sports diplomacy can bring about a historic transformation in a country whose reforms have inspired the Arab world.” . Qatar is a “leader in labor rights”.
Kaili met with Qatar’s labor minister
Shortly before the speech, Kaili met with Qatari Labor Minister Ali bin Samikh Al Marri in Qatar. In a video message, you described the World Cup as “a great tool for political change and reform”.
For years, NGOs have accused Qatar of violating the human rights of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from Asia and Africa. Reports of the poor treatment of migrant workers are overshadowing the current World Cup in Qatar, where the semi-finalists are being determined.
