EU united against corruption.

New developments concerning theinfamous Qatargate - the EU'slargest corruption scandal - havebeen popping up left, right and centre thispast year. The scandal rocked the Europeanpolitical landscape and made a significantdent in transparency across the continent.And this week, the Qatargate chroniclescontinue.

One former Member of Parliament(MEP) charged and arrested for suspectedcorruption tied to Qatargate, Eva Kaili, isnow launching a legal suit against theBelgian authorities, claiming they illegallyobtained information during their investi gations. Given the Belgian court ruling onTuesday, it looks like the corruption probeis unravelling at the seams - at least fornow. The investigation has been pushed tospring 2024, as the court ordered aninquiry into how evidence was collectedand whether the authorities breached theparliamentary immunity of the threecharged EU lawmakers. Qatargate shookthe EU to its core and it's clear that theEuropean Parliament needs to implementsystemic changes to prevent somethinglike this from happening again.

As more details about Qatargate come tolight, it's imperative that the EuropeanParliament implements significant struc tural changes to ensure transparency. Theyare doing just that - or so it seems. The law suit is happening in the aftermath of therecent reforms to the EU ethics regime.Last week, the European Parliament intro duced new legally binding rules - the firstof their kind since Qatargate - that directlyinvolve MEPs to ensure transparency anddeter illicit activity. These reforms came asa direct response to the scandal and servedas an opportunity for the EU to right thewrongs of Qatargate. And while there aresome new additions, like the introductionof asset declarations for MEPs, several ofthe already insufficient, pre-existing ruleswere rolled back by the MEPs themselves. Many view this as a step in the rightdirection, but we beg to differ. When thenews of Qatar gate broke, TransparencyInternational EU called for a structuralreform of the EU ethics and integrity sys tems, as the existing ethics body lacksindependent external oversight and doesn'thave the power to investigate or sanction.And sadly, little has changed. While we welcome the new obligationfor MEPs to submit asset declarations andmore robust measures on lobby trans parency, more is needed to tackle thestructural problems that have led corrup tion to seep into EU institutions. MEPscontinue to engage in lucrative side jobs,demonstrating...