EU updates: the rightward policy shift, Qatargate, and anti-fraud news
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In this edition:
Don’t be shocked: the election results will shift policies to the right
Yes, it’s a bit of a wry show: some of the top EU politicians are busy with hush-hush meetings to decide who will get the key jobs in the European Union. The results of the recent elections showed that the group of the Christian Democrats (EPP) of Ursula von der Leyen might not need to ally with the rightwing conservatives (ECR) of Giorgia Meloni. In a way, von der Leyen could continue doing business as usual with the Social Democrats, Renew and even the Greens.
But we can’t ignore what is happening in various EU member states. As we have reported, more (far) right wing parties are gaining local power and influencing EU-wide policies. Here are four of the big issues we will be watching closely.
For starters: agriculture. Already in the past years, we’ve witnessed a marriage between (far) right parties and the big agricultural lobby to undermine new European farming policies. Ironically, it’s debatable if by doing so they serve the best interests of the farmers. Three years ago, Follow the Money together with investigative platform Lighthouse Reports discovered that the Green Deal would actually benefit their incomes. But it seems unlikely a new Commission will dare to table a similar program for the next mandate with such a strong lobby.
Other potential gridlock: social-economic issues. The minimum wage agreement and new platform work rules were already tough matters to reach majorities on. With the rightward shift, it will be almost undoable to reach similar results.
The opposite is true for migration. Even though big questions regarding the legitimacy and human rights aspects of the migration deals that the Commission has been closing in the last year remain unanswered, and as Von der Leyen hasn’t made much effort to involve the European Parliament, we can easily predict that with the outcome of the elections, support will continue in this direction.
And as we had already predicted, democracy also suffers. Parties advocating for more transparency and better ethics have lost seats in the Parliament, hinting at a term with less accountability and more window dressing.
Lise Witteman
Other stories on our radar
The Qatargate novella continues
Some of the main suspects of the Qatargate cash-for influence affair gathered on Tuesday in the dark halls of the Justice Palace in Brussels for one of many court hearings in the largest-ever scandal to hit the European Institutions.
The alleged mastermind of the bribery operation, former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, was the first to arrive at the hearing room, soon followed by other suspects including Francesco Giorgi, who was Panzeri’s assistant and the partner of European Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili, who is equally under investigation but did not show up.
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The hearing itself was behind closed doors, but Follow the Money could puzzle together that it was mostly about whether the prosecution can make use of secret service reports. The court will decide by 24 September whether it will ask advice about this to the committee supervising the secret service.
Also in other Qatargate news, our colleagues from Le Soir reported on Saturday that the two Moroccan officials suspected of having bribed Panzeri and Giorgi will no longer be investigated in Belgium. A judge ruled that it is for the Moroccan authorities to pursue their prosecution…
And just as we had hinted, the scandal had no electoral fallout on the political parties most involved in the case. After the 9 June EU elections, Kaili’s (former) Greek PASOK party went up to three seats after two mandates of sending only two representatives to Brussels. Similarly, Italy’s Democratic Party, the party of Panzeri and outgoing MEP Andrea Cozzolino, secured 21 seats, two more than the last term.
Court annuls prison sentence for OLAF boss
The appeals court in Brussels ruled on Wednesday that Giovanni Kessler, the former head of EU anti-fraud office OLAF, no longer needs to serve a prison sentence. In September, a lower court had handed Kessler a conditional one-year sentence for illegally recording a phone conversation in a bribery case against former EU health Commissioner John Dalli from Malta.
The appeal judge confirmed Kessler’s wrongdoing, but annulled the suspended prison sentence because Kessler had shown awareness of his guilt in the appeal hearings, and because the facts were “strictly isolated in an otherwise flawless private and professional track record.”
Dalli, who was present with his family when the verdict was pronounced, has obtained symbolic damages of 1 euro.
More than a billion euros were lost
The European Commission’s anti-fraud office, OLAF, released its latest report and numbers look grim. According to the watchdog, more than 1 billion euros of taxpayers’ money was misused in 2023; a total of 190 new investigations were opened, and a sustained increase in digital fraud was identified. On a brighter note, though, the office flagged over 200 million euros before they were diverted.
Already last year we had revealed that the fraud situation in the European Union was far worse than expected. But the updated figures confirm that OLAF has little to no teeth to effectively protect public funds.
EU jobs with an agenda
Brussels is busy with the appointing of the top EU jobs at the moment. Meetings, lobbying and strategies are being negotiated every day behind closed doors, and we are already identifying interesting trends in the nominations. Expect our full rundown in the upcoming days.
What we’re reading this week
Highlights from our website