"Sacks of banknotes" found during the searches by the judicial police in the home of the vice president of the Eurochamber, the Greek socialist Eva Kalili who is now under arrest. The circumstance also clarifies the reason why she was arrested despite the parliamentary immunity, according to the internal regulation of the European Parliament in fact the immunity lapses in case of flagrante delicto.
According to the Belgian newspaper L'Echo, Kalili's father was also arrested, and at this point he could lose his seat as vice president.
A real scandal is currently shaking the European Parliament and in particular the group of socialists. This was raised by an investigation for corruption, money laundering and criminal association by the Brussels prosecutor's office, according to which Qatar would have attempted to influence economic and political decisions "by paying large sums of money or offering large gifts to third parties who hold political positions or important strategies within the European Parliament» .
In Strasbourg, at last November's Plenary, a debate was held 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 many turned up their noses at a final resolution that could have been much more severe .
The investigations led to sixteen searches in different districts of Brussels.
There are four Italians arrested. Antonio Panzeri, MEP from 2004 to 2019 , elected from the centre-left. Always with the Democratic Party and its predecessors, in 2017 he left the dem to join Article I. Luca Visentino was a point of reference for European trade unions for years , today he is general secretary of the European trade union organization ETUC.
600 thousand euros in cash were found at Panzeri's house, and in Calusco d'Adda (Bergamo), his wife and daughter were also arrested and placed under house arrest : they are accused of aiding and abetting, according to the investigators they were "fully aware" of the activities of the former MEP.
The other two Italians arrested in Brussels are Francesco Giorgi , parliamentary assistant of the socialists and companion of Kalili, and Niccolò Figà-Talamanca , of the NGO No Peace Without Justice.
A very hard blow for the Eurochamber and in particular for the Social Democrats: «Given the seriousness of the accusations, we ask for the suspension of work on all the dossiers and of the votes in the plenary concerning the Gulf States, in particular the liberalization of visas and foreseen», is the request of the Socialists.
If the Dems ask to "shed light on extremely serious allegations", M5S is asking for the resignation of Vice President Kalili.
« The European Parliament stands firmly against corruption. At this stage we cannot comment on the ongoing investigations, other than to confirm that we have and will cooperate fully with all relevant law enforcement and judicial authorities. We will do everything possible to help the course of justice », tweeted the president of the Eurochamber Roberta Metsola.
(Unioneonline/L)
