Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Brussels was jolted this week by dawn raids and an alleged fraud probe involving current and former senior EU diplomats. Host Sarah Wheaton speaks with Zoya Sheftalovich — a longtime Brussels Playbook editor who has just returned from Australia to begin her new role as POLITICO’s chief EU correspondent — and with Max Griera, our European Parliament reporter, to unpack what we know so far, what’s at stake for Ursula von der Leyen, and where the investigation may head next. Then, with Zoya staying in the studio, we’re joined by Senior Climate Correspondent Karl Mathiesen, Trade and Competition Editor Doug Busvine and Defense Editor Jan Cienski to take stock of the Commission’s first year — marked by this very bumpy week. We look at competitiveness, climate, defense and the fast-shifting global landscape — and our panel delivers its score for von der Leyen’s team.

The European Parliament’s legal affairs committee on Wednesday voted against lifting the immunity of an Italian Socialist lawmaker accused of being involved in the Qatargate scandal, on the grounds that Belgian prosecutors did not provide enough evidence. The committee did vote to lift the immunity of a second Italian Socialist MEP, according to three officials, granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations, as were others quoted in this piece. Both decisions need to be ratified by the entire Parliament at a plenary session on Dec. 15. The Socialists and Democrats group has maintained that the alleged wrongdoing claimed by Belgian prosecutors did not match the level of evidence provided in the immunity waiver request. The European People’s Party and Renew agreed with the S&D in the case of Elisabetta Gualmini, but decided the accusations against Alessandra Moretti were strong enough to lift her immunity.  The S&D group on Tuesday night lobbied other groups to protect both lawmakers, according to two officials, and called a secret vote to allow individual lawmakers to break party lines and shield Moretti. However, that push was in vain. Gualmini allegedly received help from other Qatargate suspects to get the job of S&D group vice chair and use her influence to manipulate discussions and decisions on Qatar within the group, while Moretti is being investigated for allegedly receiving benefits in exchange for speaking favorably about Qatar, according to an internal note from the legal affairs committee seen by POLITICO. Both MEPs deny wrongdoing. The S&D can still try to overturn the decision in plenary if they can convince enough MEPs to break ranks and shield Moretti. Gualmini and Moretti did not reply to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the S&D did not reply to a request for comment. PARLIAMENT VS. BELGIUM The Parliament has increasingly been wary of Belgian prosecutors, with MEPs arguing that police often do not provide enough evidence to justify their investigations.  Belgian authorities can be “a bit exaggerated,” argued an EPP MEP. “The relationship between Belgian prosecutors and the Parliament is in such a bad state,” argued a second centrist MEP. “Belgian authorities come too early with little evidence, while other prosecutors come later on in the process with tighter cases built.”  Although the Parliament is not concerned in this week’s fraud probe involving the EU’s foreign service, the scars from Qatargate and the Huawei cash-for-influence affair are still fresh. On Qatar, many MEPs are sore that, after three years of investigation, there is still no judgment. They’re afraid that the whole case could fall through at a hearing in December after the defendants challenged the legality of the proceedings.   On Huawei, resentment in Parliament flared up in May when Belgian prosecutors made headlines for asking that an MEP’s legal immunity be lifted over alleged bribery, only to withdraw the request hours later as the politician wasn’t in office at the time of the alleged wrongdoing. Lawmakers blasted the move as “sloppy.”  The authorities’ actions even prompted Parliament President Roberta Metsola to publicly call out Belgium — and other countries — for “tarnishing” MEPs’ reputations without “a solid basis.” In June, Metsola said Parliament would require a much higher standard of evidence for requests to lift immunity.  “A letter was sent to all permanent representations in September to remind them about the information that would need to accompany a request for immunity,” Metsola’s spokesperson, Jüri Laas, told POLITICO.  The constitutional affairs committee has started the process of reviewing the rules on lifting MEPs’ immunity to ensure a certain level of information is sent by prosecutors before the request can be made public in plenary, committee chair Sven Simon said Wednesday.

Eva Kaili, a former European Parliament vice president who was embroiled in the Qatargate corruption scandal, has weighed in on the fraud probe involving ex-EU top diplomat Federica Mogherini. Kaili said that Belgium is “not a safe place” for political figures, especially Italians. Speaking to La Stampa from Abu Dhabi, Kaili said she was “shocked” but hardly surprised at an investigation into whether a public tender awarded by the European External Action Service to a higher education institution to host the EU Diplomatic Academy was rigged in favor of the College of Europe. Mogherini, now rector of the college, and former foreign service chief Stefano Sannino were held for questioning as part of the probe and released from custody on Wednesday morning. Kaili, who is Greek, cast the probe as part of an “operation targeting Italy” that destroys political careers long before the facts are established, and puts the rule of law at risk. Kaili said she saw the fraud probe as a sequel to Qatargate. She drew explicit parallels between her experience and Mogherini’s brief detention, insisting Qatargate was misconstrued from the outset. What prosecutors portrayed as illicit foreign influence, Kaili maintained, was routine parliamentary diplomacy backed by private NGO funding. Nearly three years later, she noted, no formal charges have been filed against her and much of the evidence remains “largely circumstantial.” Kaili served as an MEP from 2014 and as Parliament vice president from January 2022 until December 2022, when she was arrested on preliminary charges of corruption, money laundering and participation in a criminal organization as part of the Qatargate investigation into influence operations by foreign nations in Brussels.

The European Parliament will limit the access of journalists, lobbyists and diplomats to its premises starting next week. A colored badge, issued to outsiders, will no longer allow them to freely roam buildings in Brussels and Strasbourg. The new system is based on the Parliament’s calendar, where each week is marked with a color: red for plenary sessions, blue for political group meetings, pink for committee meetings, and white for quiet weeks during summer recess or Christmas break, Euronews reported. For example, during white weeks, those interested in visiting the Parliament buildings will only be allowed in if they have an invitation signed by an MEP. In Brussels such invitations will also be needed if an outsider wants to visit a building other than the main Altiero Spinelli and József Antall blocks, regardless of what week it is. In Strasbourg invitations will be required to access premises outside plenary sessions or to enter the area where lawmakers’ offices are located. “The changes introduced to the rules … are part of a broader reform aligning with Parliament’s commitment to ensure transparency, accountability, and public trust,” the institution told Euronews. The rules will take effect Sept. 1. Several lobbyists have complained the rules will be counterproductive, and that they will tend to target small NGOs rather than large corporations. “Who loses the most? Grassroots organizations, NGOs and independent experts, the very voices that already face structural disadvantages compared to well-funded corporate lobbies,” said Isabella Sofia De Gregorio, executive director of EDUXO Italia, a non-profit educational association, in a post on LinkedIn. The founder of consultancy UNGovern, Jakub Zientala, called the move “another bureaucratic hurdle in Brussels.” “One more barrier for transparent dialogue between policymakers and stakeholders. Instead of encouraging openness, the Parliament adds layers of bureaucracy that mainly hurt smaller organizations, NGOs, and independent experts — the very voices that struggle most to be heard,” Zientala said. The rules are the latest response to scandals like Qatargate and Huaweigate, which have rocked the European Parliament in recent years and have called its transparency and the influence of lobbyists on MEPs into question. In May the Parliament made it mandatory for lobbyists to activate their badges on every visit and to state the purpose of that visit. The European Parliament did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.

The European Union’s General Court ruled Wednesday in favor of former MEP Eva Kaili, annulling the European Parliament’s decision to block her access to documents about suspected misuse of parliamentary assistant allowances. Kaili — also a key suspect in the EU’s long-running Qatargate corruption scandal — had requested the documents under the EU’s transparency regulation, but in July 2023 the Parliament rejected her request citing concerns that the disclosure would interfere with ongoing legal proceedings. According to the General Court, the European Parliament wrongly applied an EU transparency rule to withhold documents, and rejected the institution’s arguments that releasing them would harm a related court case or violate legal fairness. “The requested documents … were not drawn up for the purposes of the proceedings … and do not contain internal positions of the Parliament relating to that case file,” the Court said. The court explained that the subject matter of the document Kaili requested is different from the subject matter of the case against her. “In those circumstances, access to the requested documents cannot be refused on the ground of the protection of court proceedings,” it said. Kaili, 46, served as a Greek MEP from 2014 and as Parliament vice president from January 2022 until December 2022, when she was arrested on preliminary charges of corruption, money laundering, and participation in a criminal organization as part of the Qatargate investigation into influence operations by foreign nations in Brussels. Days after her arrest, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) requested the lifting of her parliamentary immunity, based on a report from the the EU’s anti-fraud office (OLAF) relating to “suspicion of fraud detrimental to the EU budget,” over alleged irregularities in assistants’ salaries. In February 2023, Kaili appealed the immunity request. Her lawyer Spyros Pappas called the prosecutor’s action “unjustified,” arguing that the investigation had already been completed by OLAF and involved “facts dating back to past years.” In February last year, the European Parliament unanimously lifted Kaili’s immunity to allow the EPPO/OLAF prosecution to proceed.