Remainers pine for a return to their beloved EU – but disgraceful ‘Qatari cash’ scandal proves its rotten to the core
SO EU parliamentarians have been found with bagloads of bullion allegedly dished out by shady Gulf State officials. Quelle surprise!
Blonde bombshell Eva Kaili, a Greek MEP, is among four charged with corruption after Belgian police raided her home.
The investigation found €1.5million cash at two homes. It is been claimed that some of the money has Qatari fingerprints all over it.
Ex-MEP Pier-Antonio Panzeri and Italian trade union chief Luca Visentini were also held by police.
“They are charged with participation in a criminal organisation, money laundering and corruption,” said a spokesman for the investigating judge.
The jaw-dropping claims have seen Mrs Kaili, a former TV news anchor, stripped of her role as vice-president representing the EU Parliament in the Middle East.
Yet it is only because she was believed to have been caught in the act — “in flagrante delicto” according to police — that she could not claim immunity under bizarre laws protecting the EU elite from jail.
Her lawyer insisted: “Eva declares her innocence and that she has nothing to do with bribery from Qatar.”
The incorruptible kingdom of Qatar issued its own denial.
“Any association of the Qatari government with the reported claims is baseless and gravely misinformed,” intoned a straight-faced official.
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Qatar, of course, is infamous for its brutal treatment of women, homosexuals and migrant workers and for stuffing Fifa officials with gold in return for hosting the prestigious World Cup.
Kaili stirred anger with a video last month praising the repressive Arab state as “a great tool for political transformation and reforms”.
Even for the European Union, riddled top to bottom with fraud, incompetence and corruption, the potential scale of this bribery scandal is breathtaking.
Greeks laughably claim the conduct of their ex-TV star might “dent our image”.
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock suggested the “entire credibility” of the 27 EU member states is now at stake, and said: “This is an unbelievable incident which has to be cleared up completely with the full force of law.”
EU law professor Alberto Alemanno called it “the most shocking integrity scandal in the history of the EU”.
The row has even reopened bitter divisions between member states, with right-wing Hungarian hardliner Viktor Orban gloating at Brussels “hypocrisy”.
Orban, under fire for his crackdown on free speech, tweeted an image of EU leaders apparently laughing at corruption.
“Good morning to the European Parliament,” he scoffed.
Commission president Ursula von der Leyen joined the chorus, demanding a new “code of ethics” for EU parliamentarians.
Dodgy money
Bit late for that, Ursula.
Nobody should be surprised by this storm of confected innocence.
Corruption, large and small, has been a way of life in Brussels since the EU was a mere six-nation Common Market.
Nothing moves in its corridors of power without money changing hands in return for favours, big and small. Eye-bleeding sums of taxpayers’ money oils the wheels of ever-closer union.
Olive-belt states in southern Europe were “bribed” with huge infrastructure contracts. Dirt-poor countries suddenly sprouted new motorways — sometimes to nowhere — plastered with big signs crediting the mighty EU.
Mafia gangs pocketed billions in the process. The move towards membership by such ex-Soviet states as Bulgaria and Romania has turned EU fraud into a form of organised crime — until the money ran out and recipient countries like Ireland had to pay money in for a change.
Thanks to a blizzard of dodgy money, official auditors refused every single year to approve and sign off the EU’s chaotic accounts.
The euro itself — the EU’s greatest triumph, or disaster, depending on your view — is a symbol of Brussels arm-twisting and deceit, a fix by the French to keep Germany in line.
In 1995, whistleblower Bernard Connolly warned in his bombshell book The Rotten Heart Of Europe that the one-size-fits-all currency would one day cripple the EU economy.
Rocketing inflation is bringing that forecast to life.
In 1999, as the euro was about to be born, the entire European Commission — including former Labour leader Neil Kinnock — were forced to resign amid corruption claims.
For all Ursula von der Leyen’s dream of new ethics, the EU bureaucracy is wide open to abuse by state-backed intermediaries.
Astonishingly, non-EU countries are exempt from lobbying rules aimed at stopping MEPs lining their own pocket.
The fear in Brussels is that if Qatar is dishing the dosh on such a scale, what are they getting in return? And is Qatar alone? What other Gulf states — such ruthless regimes as Saudi Arabia — are lining the pockets of MEPs?
And what about China and Russia, who blatantly use their financial and economic muscle to strong-arm compliant decision makers?
The EU, to quote Bernard Connolly, is rotten to the core.
Yet this is the European superstate that blinkered Remoaners pine for — an example of good government which the pathetic UK cannot match on its own.
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Could it be that Greek glamour girl Eva Kaili might have dramatically proved them wrong?
And proved the 17,410,742 Brits absolutely right in voting Brexit in 2016.