Eva Kaili lost her position as Vice-President of the European Parliament after a gigantic corruption scandal involving her came to light. However, it turns out that this is not an isolated case, and the activities of European Parliament politicians are still not transparent enough. The presence of lobbyists in various EU structures is also highly questionable. After all, it is not only Qatar that makes favorable decisions with money. Russia has spent more than $300 million since 2014 to influence politicians and authorities in more than 20 countries!
Kaili – the tip of the iceberg
Belgian prosecutors searched several apartments in which they found about 1.5 million euros. A Greek MEP has been arrested and charged with participation in a criminal group and money laundering. Kaili is suspected of illegally lobbying for Qatar. Cash hidden in bags and lockers was found in a hotel room. Her partner and father also worked with her. This is just one element of the investigation. So if Qatar bribes members of the European Parliament in this way, what must happen in other matters?
Vaccines, Uber, energy
Transparency is not a strong point of the European Parliament. And although the public probably learns about the few cases, these revealed effectively limit the credibility of the EU institutions. For example, I will cite only three.
Last year, EU countries were electrified by reports of the vaccine scandal. The contracts were negotiated on behalf of the Member States by the European Commission, and the head herself, Ursula von der Leyen, was involved in the talks. In April, New York Time revealed that von der Leyen had negotiated the purchase of 1.8 billion doses with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla via instant messenger. Despite the efforts of journalists, the content of these conversations has not been disclosed, and the number of questions and doubts is growing.
The Uber Files scandal was also extremely interesting. The Guardian revealed 124,000 documents from 2013-17 showing that Uber lobbied politicians, business people and the media to strengthen its position in Europe. Among other things, the talks of the then head of the company with the current French president Emmanuel Macron, who secretly helped the company in France when he was minister of economy, were published. Le Monde wrote that the files published by the Guardian “suggest that the lawsuits brought by Uber against France, Germany and Spain were partly inspired by … by the EU Commissioner, Elżbieta Bieńkowska from Poland”. The EC rejected these allegations. The case was closed.
Exactly a year ago, the French daily Liberation published a series of articles on influence trading and other unfair practices allegedly committed by judges of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), officials of the European Commission (EC) and politicians of the European People’s Party (EPP). Between 2010 and 2018, politicians allegedly participated in meetings that were illegally financed from public funds. Their organizers were to be a convicted of financial fraud former auditor at the European Court of Auditors Karel Pinxten and Brussels lobbyists. These meetings were attended by, m.in former head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, former vice-president of the European Commission Jyrki Katainen and Johannes Hahn, the current EU Commissioner for Budget and a close associate of the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. According to the daily, the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, was also under the influence of lobbyists. Donald Tusk, then head of the EPP, initially downplayed the reports. When he finally spoke, he called it a pseudo-affair.
Russian agents in Europe
It is widely known that Russian agents have a densely woven network of agent influence in Europe. This has also been stated loudly by MEPs of the European Parliament. In 2016, MEPs from the EP Foreign Affairs Committee supported a draft resolution in which they expressed concern about the increasingly strong and anti-EU propaganda from m.in Russia. There was also more and more talk not only about information warfare and increased disinformation activities, but also about penetrating the structures of individual countries and influencing internal democratic processes. There was talk of an attempt to exert Russian influence in companies responsible for security and energy. Examples could be multiplied, but I will indicate only 3 countries.
In March 2016, the report of the Swedish SAPO services for 2015 was published. The authors of the report stressed that Russia is waging psychological warfare against Sweden, aimed at decision-makers and public opinion. The Kremlin wants to influence decisions taken in Sweden by supporting extremist movements, information activities and disinformation. The Swedes also warned against the actions of the Russian authorities, who support the media, which are increasingly their tool.
Bulgaria also issued a similar report in June 2016. Bulgarian counterintelligence warned that foreign services were penetrating the internal affairs of the country. Attempts were made to take over the media and energy. The authors of the report stressed that the object of interest were “processes in the political, economic, social, cultural, religious and military spheres”.
In April 2020, information appeared in the media that “a political scientist and publicist with a Russian passport influenced a Dutch politician who was behind the campaign against the ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.” It was emphasized that the same pattern of actions was also played out by the Kremlin in other European countries. In 2016, the Dutch rejected the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement in a referendum.It was consultative and the campaign against the agreement was organised by the leader of the Forum for Democracy (FvD), Thierry Baudet. His view was shared by 61 percent of people taking part in the plebiscite with a 32 percent turnout. If you take into account the attitude of the Netherlands towards Ukraine during the war, it gets really interesting. Already after the Russian invasion, after the revelation of the brutal torture inflicted on civilians by Putin’s army, the Netherlands opposed Ukraine’s membership in the European Union. As you can see, Russian influence can be extremely durable.
How much does Russia pay for influence?
There is one more thing to consider in this whole puzzle. According to U.S. intelligence information declassified in September, Russia has spent more than $300 million since 2014 to influence politicians and authorities in more than 20 countries. However, the US State Department stressed that this was only the tip of the iceberg, and Russia planned to pour “at least hundreds of millions more” of funds to support pro-Russian parties around the world. The procedure is carried out by Russia using “pillars” controlled by Russia.
It all falls into a terrifying whole. When analysing these reports, it is worth looking at how lobbying and corruption procedures can be transferred to our internal politics. Returning to the first topic, let us remember that Eva Kaili was extremely active in actions against Poland and together with the Polish opposition attacked the government for alleged illegality or lack of freedom of speech. This is just one example. The decisions of the CJEU are also often aimed at Poland. Finally, the question remains: to what extent does the influence of lobbyists translate into the decisions of the European Commission, the attitudes of individual politicians and their votes, and the verdicts of the EU institutions?
Guest Post by Marzena Nykiel
Editor-in-chief of wPolityce.pl, columnist of “Sieci”, author of the book “Pułapka gender”. She was a publisher and producer of TV programs and a film production manager. A graduate of philosophy and journalism at the Catholic University of Lublin and postgraduate studies in film and TV production at the Łódź Film School. Twitter: @MarzenaNykiel
