Vying for global influence, Qatar, a small but wealthy Gulf state, has increasingly been greasing international diplomatic wheels. It famously became the first Arab country to host the FIFA World Cup. Infamously, it lent its name to the ‘Qatargate’ scandal.
The facts are damning. Influencing the work of the European Parliament with cold currency is a criminal matter. It betrays the confidence of the electorate and it betrays the oath that officials took to serve the EU’s interests. Hence why Qatargate has justifiably invited harsher scrutiny of elected officials.
Needless to say, MEPs owe their position to those who elected them. They are there to promote citizens’ interests, their countries’ interests and the interests of our European Union.
Some have argued that this scandal exposes a rot within the Socialist group. I do not subscribe to that assessment. After almost two decades in this house, I know with certainty that the vast majority of my colleagues on the left are dedicated, honest representatives of their citizens. Another argument is that criminal behaviour would have been prevented with more robust transparency rules. More transparency is undoubtedly a good thing. And if this horrible episode acts as a trigger for more robust rules, at least, something good would have come of it.
But an argument of prevention has its limits. Criminals willing to accept bags of cash are unlikely to be deterred by more stringent rules about which meetings should be registered. That is why the roles of institutions responsible for investigating and prosecuting crime are essential. And it is only right that the authorities are given access to conduct their investigations with the full support of the Parliament.
In this respect, Roberta Metsola’s administration acted exemplarily to fight corruption when it came to light. She almost literally opened the door for the Belgian police to seal offices and search homes as per the law. Upon the request of the Belgian authorities, and in accordance with national law, Metsola accompanied the police in her capacity as president of the European Parliament.
If she had to take notes from the Labour government on how to fight corruption, she would still be demanding proof before the police would be allowed to do its job, buying time for criminals to hide their ill-gotten gains in the process.
Far from weakening its credentials to campaign against corruption, Robert Abela would do well to observe how the parliament dealt with corruption unequivocally- David Casa
It makes it all the more bizarre that the Maltese government has taken it upon itself to argue that if MEPs cannot get their house in order, they should not criticise member states for their own corruption. In Malta, years have to pass before the police consider questioning politicians for evidence of corruption. Friends of Castille can travel despite pending arrest warrants and can still rake in hundreds of thousands of euros despite awaiting trial for criminal charges.
Start with Christian Borg, charged over a botched kidnapping and awarded a quarter of a million to supply cars, and end with Keith Schembri. Even after being at the centre of Malta’s worst political crisis in a generation, the Abela administration saw no problem to award Schembri’s companies a direct order worth €10,000 in taxpayers’ money weeks after the election.
Years after the Panama Papers, those implicated in evidence of money laundering and corruption have yet to face justice. Konrad Mizzi is running around scot-free. And there has not been a single conviction against the officials caught undermining the criminal investigation into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. You can have the best laws in the world. Enforcement counts. The buck stops with those who behaved criminally, including those who tried to cover it up.
Yet, common sense has not stopped Labour MEPs from bending over backwards to attack Metsola. It is a cheap shot exacerbated by the hypocrisy of this state of affairs that has been caused in part by a vice president that their Socialist group handpicked and foisted upon us.
If Qatargate proves anything about the European Parliament’s stance on corruption, it is that it is still zero tolerance. Far from weakening its credentials to campaign against corruption, Robert Abela would do well to observe how the Parliament dealt with corruption unequivocally.
Labour’s bizarre psychological projectionism comes weeks after the European Parliament’s strongest resolution against successive Labour government failings to prosecute corruption and to take steps against those who cover it up. Qatargate has not rendered favours to the Socialists and Democrats’ standing on corruption.
The last time the Parliament voted to condemn Labour’s rule-of-law failures, Labour MEPs could not persuade a single S&D colleague to change their vote.
At least, we can assume from their performance that the Maltese government has not been bribing the Parliament with bags of cash. Small mercies.