□ Our reporter Wu Qiong
The EU's pivotal institution, the European Parliament, has been mired in corruption scandals in recent days.
According to a number of European media reports, Eva Carly, deputy speaker of the European Parliament, and several former and current MPs were arrested and charged by the Belgian police on suspicion of corruption.
This triggered a "big earthquake" inside and outside the EU, which damaged the reputation of the European Parliament and the EU.
Critics have accused the EU's supervisory mechanism of malfunctioning, and believe that the European Parliament urgently needs fundamental reforms to improve transparency and strengthen internal supervision.
European Commission President von der Leyen made a special statement for this, calling for the establishment of a new ethics agency to supervise all EU institutions, including the European Parliament.
European Parliament mired in scandal
Over the past few days, a corruption case related to the European Parliament has attracted global attention.
According to Agence France-Presse, Belgian prosecutors recently revealed to the media that after months of investigations, they suspected that "persons occupying political and strategic positions" in the European Parliament received "huge donations and expensive gifts" to help a certain country influence Europe. Parliamentary decisions.
Subsequently, within 48 hours from December 9th to 10th local time, the Belgian police launched at least 16 search operations and arrested a total of 6 people involved in the case.
On December 11, the Belgian Federal Prosecutor's Office announced the temporary detention of four of them, but the prosecutor did not disclose their names at the time, and only pointed out that the reason for the detention was "participation in organized money laundering and corruption crimes", and the other two were released.
Although Belgian prosecutors did not disclose the names of the above four people, a source confirmed to Agence France-Presse that Eva Carly was among them and had the highest position.
The Belgian police seized a huge amount of cash, mobile phones, computers and other equipment during the search from the 9th to the 10th.
The Belgian "Echo" reported in more detail that the police found several bags full of cash at Eva Kali's home in Brussels.
Belgian authorities also revealed that since December 9, they had "frozen the network data of 10 members of the European Parliament" to prevent evidence needed for the investigation from being deleted.
Jessica Parker, a BBC correspondent in Brussels, commented that the details of some cases released by the Belgian authorities are "shocking".
As the investigation of the case deepened, things became more complicated.
People familiar with the matter said that the Gulf country involved in bribery was Qatar.
Qatar, however, insisted it had nothing to do with the case.
Qatari officials also stated: "Qatar fully complies with international laws and regulations. Any link between the Qatari government and the alleged bribery is baseless and seriously misleading."
The documents obtained by the Belgian "Morgan" on December 13 also showed that in addition to Qatar, which was previously suspected of being related to the corruption scandal in the European Parliament, Morocco also fell into the judicial attention.
So far, the Moroccan side has not responded.
The deputy speaker's involvement in the case draws attention
At present, four suspects involved in the case, including Eva Kali, have been accused of "participating in money laundering and corruption" and will appear in court soon.
Several members of the European Parliament expressed in an interview with the media that they were "shocked by the scale of the allegations and the blatant degree (of the crime)".
According to reports from Agence France-Presse, French "Le Figaro", "Le Monde" and Radio France, the 44-year-old Eva Kali is from the "Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement Party" and previously served as a famous Greek TV presenter. .
She is one of 14 vice-presidents of the European Parliament and belongs to the Social Democrats (S&D) group in the European Parliament.
According to the "Washington Post" report, Eva Kali's past job coverage included the Middle East, and she could replace the European Parliament Speaker to supervise voting when needed, and she also had a say in administrative, personnel and organizational issues.
After the news of Eva Kali's arrest came out, the European Parliament, the Greek government and other parties responded one after another.
On December 10, local time, the spokesperson of the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Mesola, announced that in view of the investigation by the Belgian authorities, the European Parliament decided to immediately suspend all positions of Eva Carly.
On December 12, local time, the European Parliament held another emergency meeting, with 625 votes in favor, 1 vote against, and 2 abstentions, and passed a formal resolution to remove Eva Carli from the position of deputy speaker.
The Greek government announced on December 12 local time that all assets of Eva Kali would be frozen.
The Greek party "Panhellenic Socialist Movement" to which Eva Kali belongs announced her expulsion from the party, and her party group in the European Parliament, the Social Democrats, also announced the suspension of her position "with immediate effect in response to the ongoing investigation."
Eva Kali's lawyer Mikalis Dimitracopoulos recently revealed to the media: "Kali's position is that she did not take bribes and she is innocent." Reuters commented that although Eva Kali Li strenuously denies any wrongdoing, yet the case is shaping up to be one of the biggest corruption scandals to hit the EU and the European Parliament.
EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ilva Johnson pointed out on December 13 that the EU and the European Parliament "the only way to rebuild trust is to fully support investigations, bring criminals to justice and root out corruption."
Force the reform of the European Parliament
The European Parliament is the EU's legislative, supervisory and advisory body.
After the incident, many foreign ministers of the EU member states stated that the credibility of the EU has been damaged by the alleged corruption of many former and current members of the European Parliament.
German Green Party Member of the European Parliament Freund also holds a similar view.
He pointed out that the arrest of Eva Kali and others is the "worst corruption scandal" that Brussels has encountered in decades.
Alemanno, a professor of law at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, commented that for a long time "the monitoring mechanism within the European Parliament has failed."
The European People's Party, the largest party group in the European Parliament, publicly stated that it fully supports the investigation by the Belgian authorities and emphasized that "any institution in the EU has zero tolerance for corruption."
Analysts believe that in the future, in addition to trying its best to restore its reputation, the real problem facing the European Parliament is how to improve transparency, strengthen internal supervision, and avoid similar scandals from happening again.
Freund pointed out that when non-EU member countries carry out lobbying work in the European Parliament and the EU, they should abide by Brussels' "lobbying rules".
But the current situation is that these countries do not need to carry out "transparent registration of interest groups", and MEPs do not need to report on relevant contact activities.
Friend believes that, given the current situation, "the EU must reform immediately".
Many EU insiders, including Freund, called for a thorough reform of the European Parliament.
Some commentators pointed out that "For decades, the European Parliament has turned a blind eye to the culture of impunity that breeds within it... There is a complete lack of independent moral oversight mechanisms" and "The European Parliament should now carry out fundamental reforms."
On December 12, local time, von der Leyen responded to the incident at a press conference in Brussels, saying that the corruption allegations against Eva Carly "caused the deepest concern" because "it is related to people's concerns about the EU and the European Union." Confidence in the European Parliament".
To this end, she wrote to the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament, and the European Court of Justice, calling for the establishment of a new ethics agency to supervise all EU institutions, including the European Parliament.
From this point of view, this is described by the outside world as "the most serious corruption scandal in the history of the European Union" may force the European Parliament to take a key step in reform.