The EU Parliament has removed the protective immunity of two politicians linked to one of the bloc’s biggest corruption scandals – paving the way for them to be questioned by Belgian investigators.
In a show of hands, the assembly voted overwhelmingly to lift the parliamentary immunity of Belgian Marc Tarabella and Italian Andrea Cozzolino.
Both men previously said through their lawyers they are willing to co-operate with the Belgian authorities.
Live television images showed Tarabella voted in favour of having his own immunity lifted.
The two have denied any links to the scandal, in which Qatari and Moroccan officials are suspected of offering bribes to influence decisions at the European Parliament.
Qatar and Morocco have also vehemently denied involvement but the assembly has suspended work on all Qatar-related files.
According to the report prepared to allow Taraballa’s immunity to be lifted, a Belgian investigation shows he “may have been involved in acts of corruption connected with interference by one or more foreign states aimed at influencing the debates and decisions taken in the European Parliament”.
It said evidence “against him suggests that such payments were made to him on several occasions, amounting to a total of between” €120,000 and €140,000.
The Cozzolino report said the Italian EU politician “is suspected of having, from 2019 onwards, participated in an agreement with other persons to co-operate in protecting the interests of foreign states in the European Parliament”.
This was allegedly done, at least in part, “by impeding the adoption of parliamentary resolutions that might damage the interests of those states in exchange for sums of money”, the report said.
Tarabella and Cozzolino are from the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) — the second-biggest political group in the assembly and hardest hit by the corruption allegations.
The scandal came to light in early December after authorities launched a series of raids across Brussels, and in Italy, seizing hundreds of thousands of euros.
Four people were charged with corruption, money laundering and membership in a criminal organisation.
They are S&D politician Eva Kaili, who was an assembly vice president until the charges came to light; her partner and parliamentary assistant Francesco Giorgi; former S&D politician Pier Antonio Panzeri and the head of a charity group, Niccolo Figa-Talamanca.
Panzeri has since reached an agreement with Belgian prosecutors to act as an informant.
He has promised to reveal the names of those involved and how money might have been moved around in exchange for a lighter sentence.
