The EU-Qatari corruption scandal is quickly escalating into a major headache for Brussels. Yesterday, Guido reported on the alleged bribes top EU lawmakers had pocketed from the Qatari government, including to European Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili. Then, it was claimed Belgian investigators had found cash worth €600,000 in one legislator’s apartment. Now they’ve found another bag of cash under the mattress, and the current figure is over €1 million…
The police have now begun searching offices in the European Parliament, the 20th raid related to the probe since Friday. They’ve also frozen the IT resources of 10 parliamentary employees. Several Socialist and Democrat (S&D) MEPs who are not directly implicated but maintain close political ties to those charged have stood down from certain roles… including MEP Marie Arena as chair of the Parliament’s human rights subcommittee.
