Bribes to influence decisions on Qatar: the prosecutor’s office in Brussels opens a hole in the Eurochamber in an investigation that promises to be bloody for the reputation of the European Parliament. And that involves, above all, the Socialist group. The investigations, which began this summer, led to the arrest of four Italians, including the former MEP of the Democratic Party and Article 1 Antonio Panzeri and Luca Visentini, for several years at the head of the European trade unions. Among the personalities involved there is also Eva Kaili, vice president of the Eurochamber: the Greek socialist exponent was stopped, interrogated and her home was searched.
Terrorism, attempted coup in Germany: 25 arrests, one arrest also in Perugia. It’s ex-colonel Maximilian Eder, he’d been living in a hotel in Ponte San Giovanni for a week
The accusations
According to the Brussels prosecutor’s office, a Gulf country would have attempted to influence the economic and political decisions of the European Parliament. How? “Paying large sums of money or offering large gifts to third parties who hold important political or strategic positions within the European Parliament”, explained the prosecutor’s office without providing either the name of the country involved or that of the suspects and people arrested. But according to the Belgian newspapers Le Soir and Knack, the country involved is the very one that is currently hosting the World Cup: Qatar. The investigations led to sixteen searches carried out by the judicial police in fourteen different addresses, in different districts of Brussels. 600 thousand euros in cash were allegedly found at Panzeri’s house. And in Calusco d’Adda Panzeri’s wife and daughter were also arrested as part of the investigation and taken to prison in Bergamo. The other two Italians arrested in Brussels are Francesco Giorgi, parliamentary assistant of the Socialists and companion of Kaili, and Niccolò Figà-Talamanca, of the NGO No Peace Without Justice.
Panzeri and Visentini, two familiar faces to the EP and the European trade unions
Panzeri and Visentini are two familiar faces in Brussels circles. The former was a MEP from 2004 to 2019 after a past as a trade unionist in the CGIL. The second was the head of ETUC, the Confederation of European Trade Unions, for eleven years. And it was just a few days ago that he was elected secretary general of the International Trade Union Confedaration, the world confederation of trade unions. Panzeri and Visentini, in addition to the constant attendance with the Eurochamber, have another thing in common: the commitment to human rights. In fact, both are linked to the NGO Fight Impunity, founded by the same former Lombard MEP in 2019. And it is precisely on the basis of the protection of human rights, especially with the approach of the World Cup, that the relationship with Qatar may have developed. In Strasbourg, at last November’s Plenary, a debate was staged on the situation of human rights and workers in the Gulf State after the controversy over the treatment of foreign employees who contributed to the construction of the stadiums for the World Cup. And, already in those days, several in the EP had asserted that the final resolution could have been more severe. On November 1, however, Kaili had met the Qatari Labor Minister Ali bin Samikh Al Marri, “welcoming the commitment” of Doha “for workers’ rights”.
Panzeri’s wife and daughter arrested
The European arrest warrant was executed today in the Bergamo area against the wife and daughter of Pier Antonio Panzeri, the former MEP of the Socialists and Democrats who ended up in the Brussels investigation for corruption and money laundering, with the bond of criminal association. Panzeri appears to still have a home in Calusco d’Adda, the town in the Bergamo area of which he is originally from: it was there that Panzeri’s wife, Maria Colleoni, 67, and daughter Silvia, 38, were found. The women are now in prison in Bergamo, where they were accompanied on the basis of the mandate which provides for pre-trial detention in prison.
M5S: serious and disturbing affair
“The news of alleged bribes and gifts from Qatar to influence the decisions of the European Parliament is very serious and disturbing”. This was declared by the delegation of the 5 Star Movement in the European Parliament. «The European Parliament is and must remain a glass house for citizens and we are therefore concerned about the role assumed in the alleged illegal conduct of some of its employees. We hope that full light will be shed on their involvement and on that of Italian politicians and trade unionists. Today is the international day against corruption, we need a strong and immediate reaction », she concludes.
