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'The country’s [Belgium] secret service broke into the house of one of the key suspects, a former Italian MEP, where they discovered €700,000 in cash, revealing an alleged plot linked to world cup host Qatar that has tarnished EU institutions.
Belgium’s State Security Service is believed to have launched a far-reaching investigation into foreign meddling in the EU in 2021.
“It was a game-changer that state security has been working on for more than a year, together with foreign intelligence services, to map suspected bribery of MEPs by various countries,” Vincent Van Quickenborne, the Belgian justice minister, told Belgian daily Le Soir.
Police have now conducted more than 20 raids, mostly in Belgium but also in Italy, with MEPs being warned immunity rules could be revisited to stop future scandals emerging in the future.
So-called friendship groups, formed by MEPs as forums to discuss ties with non-EU countries and seen as vulnerable to external influence, are also likely to be banned
Details of the covert operation emerged as Francesco Giorgi, the partner of Eva Kaili, the former European Parliament vice-president, was said to have confessed to his role in a bribery network.'
Telegraph today