Council of Europe's anti-corruption watchdog skips European Parliament scandal in annual report

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) – The Council of Europe's anti-corruption monitoring body on Thursday released its annual report on corruption, which overlooked one of the biggest corruption scandals in the European Parliament's history.

The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) referred to the case with just one sentence, which read: "The developments around allegations of bribery and foreign influence vis-a-vis the European Parliament at the end of the year would appear to confirm the merit of looking at a closer engagement of the European Union within GRECO."

Instead of arguing the European Parliament corruption scandal, GRECO preferred to focus on transparency by calling on governments to guarantee the overall principle of transparency of public documents in practice.

The EU has been shaken by the corruption scandal after Eva Kaili, the former vice president of the European Parliament, was arrested late last year by Belgian police on corruption charges.

Kaili, 44, from Greece's center-left PASOK-KINAL party, was arrested on Dec. 9 after her home was searched on corruption charges allegedly involving Qatar, which was accused of paying Kaili to lobby for the Gulf state's interests.

Also, up to €1.5 million ($1.62 million) in cash was seized by the Belgian police across dozens of home and office searches. In addition, parliamentary computers were also confiscated to protect important data.

Those detained alongside Kaili included Italian European Partner Deputy Pier Antonio Panzeri, Kaili's partner Francesco Giorgi, who worked as an assistant in the European Parliament, and Niccolo Figa-Talamanca, director of the non-governmental organization working on the rule of law.

Kali, the key suspect in the EU corruption case, was placed under house arrest in mid-April after she was put in prison for four months.

A Belgian judge decided in late May to end her house arrest as the measure was "no longer necessary for the rest of the investigation."