The corruption scandal surrounding the EU Parliament has shaken people far beyond Brussels. Qatar is said to have bribed EU politicians around Eva Kaili with gifts of money and goods. As new documents prove, however, Morocco is said to have started using such methods earlier.
A few weeks ago, what is probably the biggest corruption scandal shook the EU Parliament. The Belgian judiciary is investigating suspected corruption, money laundering and influence from abroad in the vicinity of the EU Parliament and has arrested several people. At the center of the scandal are the EU Parliament Vice Eva Kaili and her partner.
The suspicion: There is talk that the Gulf Emirate of Qatar is said to have tried to influence political decisions with gifts of money and goods. Morocco is also said to have tried this, according to reports.
According to the latest information from the “Spiegel”, Morocco is said to have pursued illegal influence in Brussels even more intensively and for longer than Qatar. The magazine has incriminating documents to back this up.
The accusation: Accordingly, the “Spiegel” has the arrest warrant against the former Italian EU parliamentarian Pier Antonio Panzeri. These documents should show that the main suspects in the Qatar affair – in addition to Panzeri, ex-parliamentary vice president Eva Kaili and her partner Francesco Giorgi – were already involved in Morocco before any money flowed out of Qatar.
In addition, the documents show that the Moroccan secret service DGED is said to have approached an Italian team led by Panzeri in 2019 to destroy the S
The central man on the Moroccan side is said to have been Abderrahim Atmoun. On behalf of the Moroccan secret service, the latter “politicized” the Italians around Panzeri and worked with a group of “friends” in parliament. In addition to Kaili, these friends also include the S
The evidence: The S
Panzeri and Co. are said to have kept in touch with Mohamed Yassine Mansouri. Mansouri is the Director General of the DGED and thus has more power than Atmoun. As proof of this, the report is said to contain flight data from Panzeri and Cossolini for business flights, each of which was paid for by the Moroccan secret service.
According to Panzeri, the meetings were about “discussing strategies in the European Parliament”. To date, the Moroccan government has remained silent on such allegations.
In public perception, however, Qatar is still the focus because the Belgian investigators’ communication is aimed at it. In the press releases issued, the public prosecutor’s office always spoke only of “a Gulf state” and left Morocco unmentioned. In complete contrast to the internal documents.
On December 15, MEPs overwhelmingly passed a resolution strongly condemning Qatar for their interference. Morocco, on the other hand, was left out and was not even mentioned by name.
