Qatargate: what the Parliament must change after voting 541 to 2

On 9 December the Belgian federal prosecutor's office searched offices and homes in Brussels and arrested six people; four were charged and remanded in custody, and investigators seized EUR 600,000 in cash, computers and telephones[1]. The prosecutors said that investigators suspected a Gulf country of seeking "to influence the economic and political decisions" of the European Parliament[1]. They did not name the state; sources told the press that it is Qatar, and Qatar's mission to the Union "categorically rejects any attempts to associate it with accusations of misconduct"[1][6]. One week later the Parliament has dismissed a Vice-President, suspended its work on Qatar and voted a resolution on its own integrity. Our generation was told that the Parliament is the Union's democratic conscience. This week it had to prove it.

What the prosecutors allege

The four people charged are, according to sources quoted by Reuters, Eva Kaili, a Greek Member and until Tuesday a Vice-President of the Parliament; Pier Antonio Panzeri, a former Italian Member and founder of the association Fight Impunity; Francesco Giorgi, Kaili's partner and a parliamentary assistant; and Niccolò Figà-Talamanca, secretary-general of No Peace Without Justice[3]. The charges are participation in a criminal organisation, money laundering and corruption[3]. The seizures total EUR 1.5 million: EUR 600,000 at a suspect's home, several hundred thousand euros in a suitcase in a Brussels hotel room, and EUR 150,000 in a Member's flat[3]. The Brussels Times reports that Kaili's father was intercepted at the Sofitel hotel carrying a suitcase of cash[2]. Kaili's lawyer says she denies wrongdoing[3]. Italian arrest warrants against Panzeri's wife and daughter also mention payments from Morocco, and a court in Italy will decide next week on their surrender to Belgium[3].

The context is public. On 21 November, during a debate on human rights before the World Cup, Kaili told the plenary that "Qatar is a front-runner in labor rights"[8]. A Parliament report on visa liberalisation for Qatar and Kuwait was on the table; on 12 December it was sent back to committee[4]. The offices of two Belgian Members were sealed and the home of a third, Marc Tarabella, was searched[1]. Nothing in these facts has been tested in court, and the presumption of innocence applies. The question for the institution is different from the question for the judge. The institution must ask how an alleged scheme of this size could run through its premises without any rule catching it.

What the Parliament did in a week

Roberta Metsola opened the Strasbourg session on 12 December with a statement whose first sentence was: "European democracy is under attack"[4]. She promised that "there will be no impunity. None," announced an internal investigation and a reform of access to premises, funding of non-governmental organisations, links with third countries and transparency of meetings, and she started the procedure under Rule 21 to end the Vice-President's term[4]. On 13 December the plenary removed Kaili by 625 votes to 1, with 2 abstentions, a double majority of two thirds of the votes cast and of the Members composing the Parliament[5]. On 15 December it adopted a resolution on suspicions of corruption from Qatar by 541 votes to 2, with 3 abstentions[7].

The resolution suspends access badges for representatives of Qatari interests and halts all work on files relating to Qatar, including the aviation agreement and visa liberalisation, until the allegations are confirmed or dismissed; it cancels planned visits to a country that is hosting the World Cup[6][7]. It asks for the transparency register "to be made mandatory" and extended to former Members, for minimum cooling-off periods for senior officials and former Members, for "full transparency of Members' side income by exact amount," for a ban on external financing of Members' and groups' staff, and for an EU-wide ban on donations from third countries to Members and parties, with a Commission proposal[7]. It creates a special committee on transparency and integrity and foresees a committee of inquiry once the criminal investigations allow, and it asks for a legislative footprint on texts and amendments[7]. It also proposes a Vice-President dedicated to the fight against corruption and foreign interference, stronger whistle-blower protection, monitoring of friendship groups and regulation of side jobs[6].

What must change

A resolution binds nobody. The Parliament's rules bind its Members, and the Bureau and the Conference of Presidents write them. Ursula von der Leyen called on 12 December for an independent ethics body that the institutions have yet to create[8]. This time a Vice-President is in custody. We make four recommendations.

We recommend that the Bureau amend the Rules of Procedure before the February 2023 session so that every Member, whether or not a rapporteur or committee chair, must publish meetings with interest representatives and with representatives of third countries, and so that registration in the transparency register becomes a condition of access to the premises for every organisation that meets Members.

We recommend that the Parliament, the Council and the Commission open negotiations in January 2023 on an interinstitutional agreement establishing an independent ethics body with the power to receive complaints, to investigate and to publish findings on Members and Commissioners alike, and that the Parliament refuse any body limited to advice.

We recommend that Members be required to declare their assets at the start and at the end of each mandate, that side income be declared by exact amount as the resolution demands, and that paid activity for any organisation that lobbies the Parliament be prohibited during the mandate.

We recommend that the special committee report within six months with a legislative footprint rule, so that every amendment carries the name of the Member who tabled it and of any outside organisation that drafted it, and that the Parliament publish the list of all associations and friendship groups that use its rooms.