Qatargate: Three years on, Europe's biggest corruption probe remains in limbo Article by Greek media

The Greek newspaper eKathimerini has published an article on the corruption scandal that erupted in the European Parliament in 2022. Caliber.Az presents the article's main findings.

"The words 'scandal', 'corruption' and, above all, the high-profile Qatargate case usually immediately evoke reactions in the institutions of the European Union and pique the interest of European correspondents in Brussels. But the news last week that a European arrest warrant had been issued for former commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos did not stir up any excitement in the Belgian capital.

The relative indifference is not due to the heatwave that has hit Brussels, but rather to a certain fatigue caused by an investigation that has now lasted three and a half years, without leading to a trial, despite the fact that it concerns the largest corruption case that has ever affected European institutions, involving influential MEPs and a former vice president of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili.

'The media here is not really covering the case, because, for many, the story has stalled,' says an experienced European correspondent who wanted to remain anonymous. 'There is a feeling that the case has been lost in the legal proceedings and that there are no tangible results.'

When Kathimerini asked what has happened in the past 3.5 years and why the case is now coming back to the fore with a new arrest warrant, the answers varied. Lawyers following the case speak of mistakes made by the investigating authorities from the start, but also argued that 'the investigations since December 2022 have led nowhere.'

On the other hand, Belgian lawyers and academics are defending Belgium’s judicial system, saying that the investigations are not keeping up with the pace of current events. 'On the pace of the Belgian investigation itself, I would be cautious about drawing firm conclusions. We know very little about the internal logic, resourcing or evidentiary complexity behind the investigating judge’s timeline,' says Alberto Alemanno, professor of European Union law at HEC Paris.

European correspondents believe that the Belgian authorities have not been able to distinguish between lobbying by NGOs and the systematic corruption, money laundering, and tax evasion of specific actors in Brussels. 'They have not been able to link the black money to specific political decisions,' says one of them.

Qatargate broke in December 2022, when Belgian authorities announced the seizure of approximately €1.5 million in cash in raids around Brussels. The investigation concerned networks of influence that, according to prosecutors, operated in favor of Qatar and Morocco within the European Parliament. 

Most of those involved deny the charges. The only exception is the Italian former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri – in whose nongovernmental organization, Fight Impunity, Avramopoulos participated – who accepted his involvement from the beginning as part of a plea deal with the Belgian authorities.

For two years, the investigation was effectively frozen, as the main suspects,  Kaili, and MEPs Andrea Cozzolino (Italy) and Marc Tarabella (Belgium), have challenged parts of the investigation, in an attempt to annul the entire process. They argued that their parliamentary immunity had been violated, that their surveillance was illegal, and that there were conflicts of interest.

On this last point, they were referring to investigating judge Michel Claise, who was forced to recuse himself in June 2023 after it emerged his son was a business partner of Belgian MEP Marie Arena’s son – Arena herself was never called to testify, even though her close political relationship with Panzeri was highlighted in the case file. She was later charged in the scandal," the article writes.

By Aghakazim Guliyev