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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 13 december 2022
Police raid more EU Parliament offices in corruption probe

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN such an ethics body where
Associated Press there are very clear rules on
BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian what has to be checked,
police conducted more how and when and what
raids at European Parlia- has to be published, how
ment offices Monday as and when would be a big
the legislature’s president step forward,” she said.
pledged to launch an inter- As the European Parlia-
nal investigation into cor- ment began its last ple-
ruption allegations and the nary session of the year in
bloc’s top official called for Strasbourg, France, Euro-
the creation of an EU-wide pean Parliament President
independent ethics body. Roberta Metsola promised
Prosecutors investigating “there will be no sweeping
alleged influence ped- under the carpet.”
dling by a Gulf country at She said the Parliament
the European Parliament and European democra-
charged four people over cies were “under attack”
the weekend with cor- by “malign actors, linked to
ruption, participation in a autocratic third countries.”
criminal group and mon- “We will launch a reform
ey laundering. Parliament process to see who has ac-
Vice President Eva Kaili of cess to our premises, how
Greece was relieved of her A man walks down stairs during a special session on lobbying Monday, Dec. 12, 2022 at the these organizations, NGOs
duties. European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France. Associated Press and people are funded,
The prosecutors declined what links with third coun-
to identify the country sus- to seize computer data be- an apartment belonging to 27-nation bloc’s institutions. tries they have,” Metsola
pected of offering cash or longing to 10 parliamentary an MEP,” prosecutors said. She said the independent added. “We will ask for
gifts to parliament officials assistants, prosecutors said. Kaili, who was relieved of ethics body she proposed more transparency on
in exchange for political Officers have conducted her duties over the week- establishing would cover meetings with foreign ac-
favors. Several members 20 raids in total as part of end, was expelled Mon- lobbying activities at the tors and those linked to
of the assembly and some an investigation launched day from the legislature’s European Commission, the them.
Belgian media linked the in- four months ago. Socialists and Democrats European Council and Eu- We will shake up this Parlia-
vestigation to Qatar, which “Several hundred thousand group with immediate ef- ropean Parliament, as well ment and this town, and I
is currently hosting soccer’s euros have been seized fect. as at the European Central need your help to do it.”
gala event, the World Cup. in three different places: European Commission Bank, the European Court On Friday, police in Bel-
Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign 600,000 euros at the home President Ursula von der of Justice and the Europe- gium’s capital carried out
Affairs has denied any of one of the suspects, sev- Leyen, the head of the EU’s an Court of Auditors. multiple raids as part of the
wrongdoing. eral hundred thousand eu- executive arm, said the The EU does not already investigation and reported
Police conducted Mon- ros in a suitcase seized in accusations against Kaili have comprehensive lob- seizing cash, computer
day’s raids at European a room of a Brussels hotel, threatened the confidence bying regulations. equipment and mobile
Parliament offices in Brussels and about 150,000 euros in EU citizens have put in the “The principles of having telephones.q

Report uncovers widespread racism at Dutch foreign ministry

By MIKE CORDER Civil servants called in an tice.” nation here, too.” report incidents.
Associated Press independent research bu- He said the ministry “will do Hoekstra said his ministry “We stand for a ministry in
THE HAGUE, Netherlands reau to investigate racism everything we can to elimi- would adopt recommen- which every member of
(AP) — The top civil servant at the ministry following nate racism within our own dations laid out in the re- staff is respected and val-
at the Dutch foreign minis- Black Lives Matter protests organization.” port to tackle racism and ued,” he wrote in his letter
try apologized Monday af- across the world and in the In 2020, amid the global make it easier for staff to to parliament.q
ter an independent inves- Netherlands. reckoning with racism
tigation found widespread The bureau’s report said following the death of
racism at the government that racism at the ministry George Floyd at the hands
department in the Neth- ranges “from aggressive, of police in the United
erlands and at its diplo- direct, overt and conscious States, Prime Minister Mark
matic outposts around the to subtle, indirect, hidden, Rutte conceded that rac-
world.”Racism cannot and unintentional or uncon- ism was a problem in the
should not have a place scious and that bicultural Netherlands, a nation that
in our organization,” the employees and locally has long considered itself a
ministry’s secretary-general hired employees of color bastion of tolerance.
Paul Huijts said. experience various forms “There are also people liv-
“We are sorry that we have of racism.” In a letter to ing in the Netherlands who
apparently not been able lawmakers, Foreign Minister in that regard feel that they
to offer a work environment Wopke Hoekstra said it was don’t fully fit in, that they
in which there is no place “extra painful” to find rac- can’t play a full role in this
for this sort of occurrence,” ism at his ministry, “because society,” he said at the Netherland’s Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra talks to journalists
he said. “For that I offer, on every form of discrimination time. “That is also a Dutch on second day of the meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign
behalf of the management is prohibited and we advo- problem. There is racism Affairs, in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022.
board, our apologies.” cate internationally for jus- here, too. There is discrimi- Associated Press