Brussels is facing what could be its worst corruption scandal in years amid allegations that Qatar’s government bribed officials in the EU capital to win influence.
Four people, including a vice-president of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili, were arrested in 16 raids ahead of the weekend on claims including “criminal organisation, corruption and money laundering”.
It is the details of the scandal that make it so significant. Cash seized by Belgian police is said to be worth about €600,000 (£515,000) – totalling six times a British MP’s salary.
Kaili, a Greek MEP from the centre-left Pasok party, had previously raised eyebrows by describing Qatar as a “frontrunner in labour rights” despite an estimated 6,500 migrant workers having died there since it was awarded the World Cup.
The specifics of the corruption claims made against those arrested is yet to be made clear. Qatar’s government “categorically rejects any attempts to associate it with accusations of misconduct”.
Since Britain is no longer a member of the EU, it is tempting to mistake these events for a tale of a distant land, an alien political culture, and something that could never happen here.
Yet the elephant in the room is that it is not unusual for politicians – whether in Brussels or Westminster – to be given hospitality and gifts by people who seek to influence them.
A glance at the UK parliament’s publicly available register of interests will reveal tens of thousands of pounds in hospitality and travel given to MPs since the last election.
Sometimes these are tickets to sought-after sports events paid for by a commercial company. Perhaps it might be travel on a “fact-finding mission” paid for by a foreign state, complete with stays in lavish hotels.
The Independent has recently reported on a number of such cases, all legal. In some cases politicians have spoken up in favour of the same donors in parliament or elsewhere.
Yet when the rules on reporting and declaring such donations are followed, there is no case in law to answer. But the aim is no different: to win influence by spending money.
What is claimed in Brussels today seems to be on a different level to most of this, and a particularly egregious example.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said on Monday that the revelations are of the “utmost concern” and “very serious”.
New details tricked out by the Belgian authorities on Monday suggest several hundred thousand euros were found in a suitcase in a Brussels hotel room, with another €150,000 in an MEP’s flat.
It is fair to ask whether the people spending these vast sums, both legally or allegedly illegally, are really making a wise investment.
Yet we should always remember that even when legal, such gifts are not given out of the kindness of the hearts of donors. They are there to win influence with cash.
