The European Parliament - the new nest of "criminals"

The European Parliament seems to have become a hotbed of criminals, as according to an investigation carried out by the Belgian dailies L'Echo and De Tijd, picked up by the Belgian website La Libre, it shows that almost one in four MEPs is being investigated or prosecuted criminal. The international investigation on the integrity of European deputies has identified in the last four years 253 criminal cases targeting 163 MEPs out of the 704 members of the European Union Legislature.

According to the cited sources, they are accused of committing several crimes such as workplace harassment, fraud, nepotism and corruption. Of the 253 criminal files, 45 are instrumented for corruption, and of these, 29 cases refer to nepotism (a crime whereby the deputy uses his influence in favor of a relative) and 16 represent bribery.

The most well-known case of corruption at the level of the European Parliament is Qatargate, a scandal in which the governments of Morocco and Qatar allegedly paid large sums to European deputies to influence Parliament's decisions regarding relations with the respective states. We remind you that on December 10, 2022, Eva Kaili, then Vice-President of the European Parliament, former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri and two other suspects were arrested by the Belgian authorities, being suspected of involvement in a criminal organization, money laundering and corruption. According to Belgian prosecutors, the suspects are accused of influencing decision-making in the European Parliament in favor of Qatar, the host of the soccer World Cup, in exchange for sums of money and gifts. During the search of Panzeri's home, Belgian prosecutors found 600,000 euros. According to the Belgian media, Panzieri would have received the respective money from Qatar and Morocco to support the interests of the two states in the European Parliament. Also on the same day, the Brussels prosecutors also detained Eva Kaila's father, who allegedly was in possession of a suitcase containing a large sum of euros, an amount for which the former vice-president of the European Parliament, her father and her assistant Evei Kaili did not have any supporting documents. In total, the Belgian investigators confiscated the sum of 1.5 million euros in cash, found at the residences of Panzeri and Kaili, as well as in the suitcase that the father of the MEP from Greece had on him. The case has been in the hands of Belgian prosecutors for over a year, and so far no sentencing decision has been taken by the Brussels courts.

46 files refer to harassment, especially sexual harassment, which has become, according to the cited sources, a real criminal phenomenon within the European institutions. The journalistic investigation carried out by the cited sources identified 46 cases of alleged indecent behavior at work, behavior of which 37 MEPs would be guilty. Fraud or embezzlement of granted funds are the main charges in 44 criminal cases.

• Suspicions also at the top of the European Commission

Unfortunately, the investigation carried out by the cited sources did not take into account the cases regarding the officials and officials of the European Commission, especially since some of them are suspected of having also received various expensive gifts from the Qatari authorities or benefited from certain facilities, which if paid by the respective officials would have been costly.

The biggest scandal regarding the European Commission is related to President Ursula von der Leyen regarding the negotiation of the contract with the Pfizer company for the purchase of anti-Covid vaccines. While journalists from The New York Times and a Belgian lobbyist Frederic Baldan have already opened court actions against Ursula von der Leyen in 2022, accusing her of a conflict of interest and even misappropriation of funds, and the European Public Prosecutor's Office is working on it, also from 2022, a criminal complaint regarding the purchase of anti-Covid vaccines, a complaint in which, for over a year and three months, investigations in rem (regarding the existence of the facts) have been carried out, the National Anti-Corruption Directorate in our country is moving better as long as he managed to start the criminal investigation of the former Prime Minister Florin Cîţu, the former Ministers of Health, Vlad Voiculescu and Ioana Mihăilă, and the former Secretary of State Andrei Baciu, regarding the illegal purchase from the Pfizer company of over 39 million doses of the anti-Covid vaccine, a purchase that resulted in a damage of over one billion euros.

Following this action by the anti-corruption prosecutors in our country, the Pfizer company sued the Romanian state at the Francophone Courtof first instance in Brussels and requests payment for all vaccines ordered. The first deadline is set for February 20, 2024, and in order to properly defend itself, the Government decided yesterday, by adopting a memorandum, to authorize the Ministry of Finance to enter into a contract with a strong international law firm.

Regarding this case, Alexandru Rafila, the Minister of Health, said: "Obviously the order was made by Mr. Barna (Deputy Dan Barna, head of the list of the USR for the European Parliament elections of June 9, 2024), Mrs. Mihăilă and Prime Minister Cîţu, for 39 million doses of vaccine for the years 2022 and 2023. We, in order to be able to sell 7 million doses of vaccine to Germany and Hungary, had to sign a document by which we commit ourselves based on the order made by Mr. Cîţu. We will make available to the competent bodies all the necessary information to clarify the situation in the respective file".

For his part, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said: "I'm used to the bills coming to me as Prime Minister for all the stupid things done by others. After the covid vaccines taken illegally by others, today we approve a memorandum to hire a law firm to defend us in the Brussels lawsuit filed by Pfizer. We will have a contract with a company, because February 20 is the first deadline. We approve this memorandum so that the Ministry of Finance can negotiate and defend ourselves better than we have done so far".

According to the memorandum approved yesterday by the Government, the Ministry of Finance will contract legal services in order to represent Romania before the Francophone Court of First Instance in Brussels in case no. F5331-23, in which the company Pfizer - BioNTech sued Romania for the payment of all vaccines against -Covid, purchased as part of the European Union supply contract, signed in 2021.

In the press release issued by the Victoria Palace after yesterday's government meeting, it is stated: "In this sense, the Ministry of Finance will urgently contract a firm or a law firm with relevant experience that meets all the legal conditions necessary for the defense Romania's interests. At the same time, the legal structure within the Ministry of Finance will take over the activity of representing the state in all international judicial disputes, including within the judicial file of the Kingdom of Belgium, which expressly regulates this attribution of representation. The urgency of adopting this measure is given by the very short term until the first court term, namely 20.02.2024, during which the contracting of legal assistance and representation services is required. The Ministry of Finance takes over this task, considering that the Ministry of Health has not concluded any contract for the provision of legal assistance and representation neither for national courts nor for international jurisdictions, having no experience in contracting such services".

The cited document states that, at the beginning of the current year, the Government received the summons issued by the Francophone Court of First Instance in Brussels on 22.12.2023, in the case registered with no. F5331-23, promoted by the plaintiffs Pfizer Inc., BionTech Manufacturing GmbH, Pfizer Romania SRL, which requests the execution of the purchase contract by paying the price for the remaining 28.94 million vaccines that it purchased, in the amount of approximately 564 million euros, respectively the payment to Pfizer Romania of the amount of 2.78 billion lei and the payment of court costs related to the procedure, respectively 22,500 euros.