Didier Reynders, who was the European Commission’s Justice Commissioner until a few weeks ago, is being questioned in Belgium on suspicion of money laundering. He was questioned after police raided several addresses linked to him. The EU bureaucrat is alleged to have spent a decade buying lottery tickets with dubious money and transferring the winnings to his own account. He was already under investigation in 2019 on suspicion of corruption and money laundering, but prosecutors eventually dropped the case. The politician had enjoyed immunity for the past five years, which has now ended with the end of his mandate.
According to Politico, a spokesperson for the European Commission confirmed that they are aware of the investigation and will cooperate with the Belgian authorities if necessary. Csaba Dömötör, a Fidesz MEP, reacted to the news on his social media page by recalling that Didier Reynders had been the “leading soloist” of the rule of law chorus against Hungary for years.
“He lectured about democracy, legal principles and values from every possible angle, in every possible reprimanding tone,” wrote Dömötör. “He played a major role in withholding EU funds due to us as a means of exerting pressure.”
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A few days later, Magyar Nemzet reported that the EU had “completely accidentally” changed anti-money laundering regulations to benefit Didier Reynders. The European Parliament adopted a provision in April 2024 that exempts lottery companies from strict EU anti-money laundering rules, citing that they pose a low risk.
László Dornfeld, the chief analyst at Budapest’s Center for Fundamental Rights, believes that corruption has now become an operating principle in Brussels, and the political environment has changed. In his words, Brussels at the beginning of the third millennium can be compared to Byzantium at the beginning of the second millennium.
“Instead of seeking reasonable compromises, only political power counts. And in this field full of Byzantine intrigues, everyone’s loyalty must be guaranteed somehow. Whether through ideological means – let’s just remember the list of Soros’ reliable allies – or through money,” he told Magyar Nemzet.
In connection with the case, attorney András Schiffer bitterly noted in a Facebook post that Reynders was the one who lectured Hungary’s minister of justice about the EU’s claims regarding rule of law and corruption, because of which EU funds due to Hungary are still blocked to this day.
“Well, ‘Pfizer’ von der Leyen, Didier Reynders, Eva Kaili and the latter’s party colleague, the also rapporteur George Papandreou, have managed to make a perfect farce out of the otherwise real rule of law problems in Hungary in a few years,” Schiffer said.
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As is known, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, allegedly negotiated multi-billion dollar vaccine purchases with the head of Pfizer via text message during the coronavirus pandemic, completely excluding the public.
We can thank Eva Kaili for the Qatar case: The former Greek Social Democrat MEP was among the first to be arrested in December 2022 after Belgian police launched a wide-ranging investigation into whether non-EU countries, including Qatar and Morocco, were involved in bribing EU lawmakers.
READ MORE: The EU’s corruption scandal in the European Parliament is being swept under the rug
“Von der Leyen’s corruption cases surrounding the vaccine order did not affect her re-election either. Her supporter, Manfred Weber, also made his chief of staff, who was involved in a corruption case due to receiving the same salary from two places, the secretary-general of the European People’s Party. In 1999, the Santer Commission collapsed under corruption charges, but within the current Brussels political elite, anyone who does not have any similar cases is considered strange,” says László Dornfeld.
He believes that they cannot find a single clean person in Brussels to talk about corruption in Hungary.
“For example, one of the actors in the Kaili scandal, Marc Tarabella, went into the European Parliament with a police tracker on his leg to vote on the resolution condemning Hungary. “Reynders, while the police suspect him of laundering money extensively — an accusation that was already known when he was nominated — constantly attacked us because of the corruption situation,” he recalls.
The famous cases mentioned so far are just the tip of the iceberg. Earlier this year, Makronom drew attention to a revealing study by the Dutch platform Follow the Money.
According to aggregate data, almost a quarter of the Members of the European Parliament have been involved in highly questionable, scandalous situations from a moral or legal perspective, or even in specific violations of the law.
Furthermore, reports suggest that the immunity of MEPs is a breeding ground for serious abuses, and this culture has taken hold throughout the institution; the membership closes in and looks on benevolently while its members cause serious problems.
According to László Dornfeld, the main problem is that transparency rules are not sufficient to prevent corruption.
“The asset declaration system in the European Parliament is the weakest in Europe: For example, the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, ‘forgot’ to report on large gifts 142 times,” he emphasizes. For a long time, there was no obstacle to lobbyists freely visiting MEPs in their own offices, without any reporting obligation. In fact, there are 10 times as many lobbyists in Brussels as there are MEPs,” Dornfeld notes.
When asked whether Reynders’ case could bring about any substantive change, the analyst responds skeptically. According to him, such a case alone is not enough; only a signal from European voters could kick-start the process.
“The last time it seemed like the Qatar case would have any substantive consequences for Brussels. It didn’t. Those involved are still happily living their lives, they were all able to return to the EP to politicize until their terms of office expire. No verdict has yet been handed down against any of them, and the fact that new cases are coming to light shows that a ‘hands-on’ system has developed in the EU institutions,” the analyst says.
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