Email embroils Italian MEP in Qatargate
Two days after Eva Kaili’s speech on November 22 in the European Parliament, during which the Greek MEP described Qatar as a pioneer in labor rights, MEPs of the Socialists and Democrats group in the parliament received an email from Italian MEP Andrea Cozzolino urging them to vote against a paragraph of a resolution that included the allegation that the World Cup was given to Qatar by FIFA through bribery and corruption.
The European Parliament should not accuse a country without evidence coming from the competent judicial authorities, he wrote, while even criticizing the awarding of the 2006 World Cup to Germany, suggesting it was the result of corruption.
The content of the email, which Kathimerini has seen, would have little meaning if Cozzolino, a member of the subcommittee on human rights and head of the delegation for European Union-Morocco relations, had not been named as an accessory by Francesco Giorgio, Kaili’s partner, who has been imprisoned over Qatargate.
Kaili’s speech was made ahead of a European Parliament resolution on corruption in Qatar and the circumstances under which the World Cup was decided to be hosted there. The resolution reached the plenary on November 24, the day Cozzolini sent the email.
To Cozzolino’s disappointment, however, 389 members of the European Parliament voted in favor and 139 against the controversial resolution in a vote that took place in plenary.
Two weeks later, on December 9, Giorgio, Kaili and two others were arrested in Brussels as part of the Qatargate operation, accused of corruption, money laundering and forming a criminal organization. Giorgio allegedly confessed his involvement in the scandal and pointed to the Italian former MEP Antonio Panzeri and Cozzolino as central figures in the case.
