Qatargate drew great attention in Brussels to the activities of one former Socialist MEP (its interesting to note how often socialists pop up in fraud scandals) one Pier Antonio Panzeri, who sat in the European Parliament from 2004-2019.

Perhaps this photograph shows us the moment when Panzeri got ideas of his own – the Qatargate scandal, which allegedly involved MEPs and others taking bribes from the government of Qatar, relied to a significant degree on the cover of Panzeri’s one (possibly two,) NGOs.

It should be pointed out at this point that Panzeri has admitted to his guilt -— including on bribes he says he made – in return for a reduced sentence.

Certainly Panzeri also has been connected to Mukhtar Ablyazov by the UK press: Ablyazov has outstanding jail time to serve in the UK in connection with his criminal activities).

“When the police raided the home of the former socialist MEP and lawyer Pier Antonio Panzeri and found €500,000 in cash as part of the most serious corruption case in the European Parliament in decades, nobody noticed one of his clients was an oligarch who is the subject of the biggest civil fraud case in British legal history.” The Spectator, 14 January 2023.

Ablyazov has denied any connection with Panzeri suggesting that he himself should sue The Spectator, but unfortunately he claims he lacks the funds.

A recent report by the European Institute for Integrity has taken the step of naming 18 former and current MEPs providing “evidence” of “collusion involving Members of the European Parliament and European Politicians.”

Many of the MEPs named in the report are known well to EU Today. Most are assiduous, hard working honest politicians. A small number are not. The names of the MEPs concerned can be found in pages 4-6 of the report.

The evidence presented in the report says not so much about the MEPs themselves, but speaks volumes as to how the European Parliament has allowed itself to be infiltrated by those with the resources to hijack the process.

Spanish MEP Sanchez Amor is one MEP of particular interest: he appears to have written endless letters in support of Ablyazov and others. He has also been a supporter of convicted Russian fraudster Nail Malyutin, who, somewhat unsurprisingly, is himself another convicted criminal whose cause is championed by ODF.

It is worth mentioning in this context that Bartosz Kramek, board member of ODF and husband of the NGO’s president, Lyudmyla Kozlovska, has himself been accused of money laundering in the UK in 2019, and in Poland in 2021. Most of ODF’s more prominent clients appear to have been accused and convicted of money laundering at some point. Most appear, to have been directly involved with Mukhtar Ablyazov or indeed, in at least one case, to have married into his family.

And does anybody really believe that those Chinese and Russian journalists who have been for many years sitting in on European Parliamentary Committee meetings on matters as important as economic policy, and security and defence are really “journalists?