The corruption scandal involving European Parliament Vice President Eva Kyle and four other people who were detained as part of a bribery probe in Qatar sparked a backlash in Brussels on Saturday, as elected officials and NGOs called for an urgent debate on improving ethics rules. in this main institution of the EU, reports AFP.

• UPDATED President of the European Parliament Roberta Metzola recalled Eva Kaila from the post of EP Vice-President on Saturday.

“This is not an isolated case,” said Transparency International. “For several decades, the parliament allowed the development of a culture of impunity (…) and a complete lack of independent ethical control.”

“This institutional control has ‘flaws,'” Alberto Alemanno, a law professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, added on Twitter.

Will Eva Kylie give up her seat in the European Parliament?

Five people were detained in Brussels on Friday following at least 16 searches as part of an investigation into suspicions that “the Gulf country is influencing economic and political decisions of the European Parliament by paying large sums of money or offering large gifts.”

Federal prosecutors did not name the country, but a judicial source familiar with the matter confirmed to AFP that it was Qatar, as reported by Le Soir and Knack.

“Any allegations of wrongdoing by the state of Qatar demonstrate serious misinformation,” a Qatari government official told AFP on Saturday.

The scandal erupted in the middle of the 2022 FIFA World Cup as the host country must work to protect its reputation for human rights abuses, including workers’ rights.

First of all, the dossier acquired an additional dimension when the identity of the fifth person detained on Friday night was confirmed, namely the Greek MEP Eva Kyli – a 44-year-old former TV presenter who also holds the title of Vice-President of the European Parliament.

Eva Kylie has already been expelled from her Greek party, Pasok, and suspended from the Socialists and Democrats group in parliament. In addition, she is under pressure to give up her seat in parliament.

On Saturday, PASOK demanded that Eva Kylie give up her seat in the European Parliament, but she refused to do so by late Saturday. Belgian newspaper L’Echo quoted an unnamed Greek lawmaker as saying that he “knows that this will mean removing parliamentary immunity,” Ekathimerini reported.

Bags of money were found in Kylie’s home

Kylie was immediately expelled from the Socialist Party of Greece (Pasok-Kinal), which also wants her to give up her seat in the European Parliament. The Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group announced the suspension “with immediate effect”.

Like Pasok, a group of Green MEPs called for Ms Kylie’s resignation with the voice of its co-chair, Belgian Philippe Lambert.

The hearing of five suspects continued in Brussels on Saturday, the spokesman of the federal prosecutor’s office said.

The investigating judge must make a decision on a possible preventive measure within 48 hours after the arrest, that is, no later than Sunday.

According to the prosecutor’s office, the investigation by Belgian judge Michel Clees concerns “corruption” and “money laundering” in an organized group.

Belgian newspaper L’Echo said on Saturday that “several bags full of banknotes” were found at Eva Kylie’s home in Brussels, which was raided by police after her father was arrested with a large sum of cash in a “suitcase”.

According to information confirmed by AFP, at least three of the suspects arrested on Friday are Italian or of Italian origin: former Socialist MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, International Trade Union Confederation (ITU) General Secretary Luca Visentini, and Francesco Giorgi , S&D parliamentary assistant, partner of Ms Kylie.

During the operation, police seized “approximately €600,000 in cash” as well as “computer equipment and mobile phones”, the contents of which will be analysed.

The gifts or benefits offered may be linked to Qatar’s desire to improve its reputation, which has been heavily criticized for its human rights and treatment of foreign workers.

How MEPs react to this “very serious scandal”

In addition to the five people detained in Belgium, two more people were detained in Italy, an Italian government source confirmed to AFP in Rome on Saturday. We are talking about Panzeri’s wife and daughter.

At the beginning of November, Eva Kylie went to Qatar, where she welcomed the emirate’s reforms in this sector in the presence of the Qatari Minister of Labor.

“Qatar is a leader in terms of labor rights,” Eva Kylie also stated on November 22 from the rostrum of the European Parliament.

These remarks, which at one time caused outrage in the ranks of the left, returned to the consciousness of many MEPs after the announcement of the detention of Ms. Kylie.

French Socialists condemned the “very serious scandal”, while environmentalists Michel Rivazi and David Cormand pointed to the “guilt of indulgence” of some Social Democrats (S&D) during the debate on Qatar in the last plenary session.

The next session, which starts on Monday in Strasbourg, promises to be very busy. French MEP Manon Aubry (far-left) called for a new debate on the same topic, blaming the “aggressive Qatari lobby” on Saturday.

“We will do everything in our power to cooperate with the judiciary,” Parliament President Roberta Metzola wrote on Twitter.

Read also:

• Corruption scandal in the European Parliament. Details of the investigation, within the framework of which the vice-president of the European Parliament was detained / Reaction of the European Parliament
• Who is the vice-president of the European Parliament Eva Kylie, detained for corruption