The European Parliament starts the procedure for the lifting of the parliamentary immunity of two of its members, after a question from the Belgian judicial authorities. The cabinet of European parliament chairman Roberta Mesola reports this. In addition to Italian Andrea Cozzolino, this is the Belgian PS person Marc Tarabella, who will not stop the lifting. According to his lawyer, he does not want to hide behind his immunity.
“Marc Tarabella has repeated the court since the opening of this file,” says his lawyer Maxim Toller. “He even asked to be interrogated quickly to defend himself. He has also always said that he would not hide behind his inviolability, because he has nothing to blame. ”
Lifting Immunity in The Plenary Meeting
Chairman Metsola will announce the request for lifting immunity in the plenary meeting as soon as possible, on January 16, after which the request will be transferred to the Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament. That committee must then appoint a rapporteur to study and submit the files to the committee. Both members of parliament can also hear this, after which the committee must transfer a proposal to the entire parliament to remove or not cancel the immunity.
The scandal around Qatargate erupted at the beginning of December. In addition, the Greek MEP Eva Kaili was called, which was arrested and in the meantime was dropped as vice -president of parliament.
Her partner Francesco Giorgi would have admitted to the Belgian court that he was part of an organization used by Morocco and Qatar to intervene in European cases, and said that, according to him, two other members of the European Parliament received money: the Belgian Marc Tarabella and Andrea Cozzolino.
Tarabella was already suspended by the PS in mid-December, and Cozzolino was also put on non-active by his own party, the Italian Partito Democratico.
The parliament votes with a simple majority over the cancellation. If it is approved, the chairman immediately transfers that decision to the members concerned and the competent national government, in this case the Belgian Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office. Chairman Metsola has asked all the services involved to give priority to the Taraballa and Cozzolino procedure, so that it can be completed by 13 February.
“From the start, the European Parliament has done everything in its power to participate in this investigation,” says chairman Mesola. “We will continue to do that, to ensure that this is not impossible. Those responsible will notice that this parliament is on the part of the law. Corruption is not allowed and we will do everything we can to fight it. ”
This article is originally published on demorgen.be