SEVEN MONTHS AFTER QATARGATE, A CONFLICT OF INTEREST DAMAGES THE IMAGE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola assures that nothing can be blamed on the senior European official, Niccollo Rinaldi, former Italian MEP. AFP

Last December, the Qatargate scandal exploded, which we have followed extensively in these columns. The first shock passed, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, swore to her great gods that everything was going to change and that the ethical rules would be reinforced - writes Hugues Krasner.

With a view to combating corruption, of course, but also to ensure that lobbying – which, in its role of providing information, is necessary for democracy – is exercised according to strict rules of transparency. The reality is quite different. A former MEP, the Italian Niccolo Rinaldi, is now Head of Unit in the European Parliament. Specifically, he is responsible for the regional unit responsible for relations in particular with the countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan). But he cheerfully goes beyond his duty of reserve to criticize Kazakhstan on the basis of information received in particular from a Kazakh opposition party founded and led by a former Kazakh banker convicted in his country of embezzlement and targeted by justice in the United Kingdom. We submitted Mr. Rinaldi's case to the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, her cabinet, after a few weeks of waiting, sent us a polite but succinct response that could be summed up with a simple formula: "Move around, there is nothing to see". Everything is therefore going well in the temple of European democracy. For the best ? Really ?

It was by looking at Central Asia and, more particularly, in Kazakhstan that we discovered a situation which seems to us, let's say, problematic: that of a senior civil servant who, while occupying a position which leads him to manage the relations of the European Parliament with the countries of the region, militates, in his private life, against the regimes in place. But before going any further, it is necessary to place things in their context.

A strategic area for Europe

Central Asia (ie Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan) today plays a key role in relations between the European Union, the former Soviet world and Asia. The highest European authorities (President of the Union, Charles Michel, President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell) are particularly attentive to this area. And in this group of “five”, one country clearly stands out for its size, its natural resources and its economy: Kazakhstan.

Another interest of Kazakhstan, in addition to its desire to get closer to Europe (whose gas, oil and uranium resources, among others, could make it a strategic partner for Brussels) and the fact that it is Astana which, in the region, has, since the start of the war in Ukraine, been the furthest from Moscow, it is also that of the five which is currently making the most efforts to modernize and democratize.

MP Fulvio Martusciello, member of the Delegation for Parliamentary Cooperation (DCAS) between Brussels and the countries concerned, moreover welcomed, on October 27, reforms (the limitation of the presidential mandate to a single period of seven years) which would “not only strengthen the democratic transition of the country, but would also establish an interesting model for the whole region […] The introduction of a single presidential term will create a better system of checks and balances and a more dynamic political landscape. It will help transform and reinvigorate the country's legislative, political, economic and social systems, which will benefit its neighbors and deepen the partnership with the European Union”. Of which act.

Curious conflict of interest

It is by taking an interest in both this important partner of the Union and also in Qatargate that we discovered a curious conflict of interest.

Investigating the Qatargate scandal, we revealed in these columns that Pier-Antonio Panzeri, the chief corruptor of the network targeted by the investigation, had, while he was still an MEP, defended a sulphurous Kazakh ex-oligarch, Mukhtar Ablyazov (see:

Qatargate: Pier-Antonio Panzeri also defended an oligarch from Central Asia…– and, more recently, that of a former Prime Minister (then head of the secret services and, as such, one of the main people responsible for the repression in the last years of the presidency of Nursultan Nazarbayev), Karim Massimov (see: When Pier Antonio Panzeri and Maria Arena defended a former senior Kazakh official suspected of corruption .

In both cases, he collaborated closely, as we demonstrated at the time, with a Brussels- based NGO, the Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF) and one of his advisers, Botagoz Jardemalie. Several sources suggest that the ODF would be financed by Mukhtar Abyazov, author of an embezzlement of several billion dollars when he headed the Kazakh bank BTA. It should be noted that the ODF and Mr. Ablyazov deny any closeness of this type. What cannot be disputed, however, is that Mukhtar Ablyazov has been convicted on several occasions for these acts of embezzlement or related offences, including once in London, and that he is currently the subject of several investigations,

among others in France. It is also undeniable that Mrs Botagoz Jardemalie, today a political refugee in Belgium, was a very close collaborator of Mukhtar Ablyazov at the time of the embezzlement. Objectivity obliges us, however, to emphasize that Botagoz Jardemalie has never been convicted or even charged in this context.

Shortly after the publication of these articles, parliamentary members of DCAS told us that a senior parliamentary official was also very close to the ODF and, above all, to Botagoz Jardemalie (who recently became an official ODF lobbyist in Parliament). It was Niccolo Rinaldi.

Niccolo Rinaldi, is Italian. "Head of Unit" in the European Parliament. As such, it depends on the General Secretariat, one of whose functions is to provide “technical, legal and substantive assistance to parliamentary bodies and deputies, in order to help them in the exercise of their functions”.

Mr. Rinaldi's specific function is to be the head of the regional unit responsible for relations with Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

The career system in the European Union is relatively complex, but a “head of unit” is about halfway up the scale of responsibilities and belongs to the cadre of senior officials responsible for “directing, designing and studying”.

Above a head of unit, there are, from a hierarchical point of view, only advisers (generally experts in a subject), directors and the director general of the institution concerned.

It is therefore an important and strategic place, since one could say that, concentrating on a theme or a specific activity, the head of unit “runs the shop” and provides parliamentarians with the information that enables them to fulfill their role. But the precise function

Mr. Rinaldi is to be the chief manager of the regional unit responsible for relations with Asia, Australia and New Zealand. In this capacity, for example, it is he who sets the agenda for DCAS meetings and chooses any witnesses and experts invited to hearings. Or, at a minimum, it is under his responsibility that these tasks are carried out.

Responsible for relations with Kazakhstan by function, anti-Kazakh activist by conviction

Until then, nothing to say. But guided by our deputies friends, we have (quite easily, it must be admitted) discovered that on August 13, 2022, Nicollo Rinaldi participated, as a member of the Radical Party, in visits to prisons in Italy, going more specifically to the penitentiary establishments of Florence and Prato. Visits made in the company of… Botagoz Jardemalie (we do not know in what capacity the latter was present).

Very recently, on May 2, 2023, he honored a program of Radio Radicale (the radio of the Italian Radical Party) with his presence, explaining that Kazakhstan was "helping Russia to circumvent European sanctions" before quoting at length "a Kazakh lawyer and a human rights activist to whom I spoke recently". For those who didn't recognize her, it is indeed…Botagoz Jardemalie. Finally, he concluded by presenting a rather ghostly organization, the “Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan” (CDK), as “a credible opposition party”. Detail: the CDK was founded and is run by convicted swindler… Mukhtar Ablyazov.

No one will dispute Mr. Rinaldi's right to associate with whomever he wishes and to express any opinion he wishes in his capacity as a private person. However, we can rightly consider that if the same person is both a critic of a given country (which, once again, is his right) and the secretary of a committee or parliamentary delegation having to deal with this country, the institution has a credibility problem. Isn't the strictest neutrality, in fact, appropriate for a civil servant? The documents of the parliament evoke, moreover, a "duty of loyalty and impartiality".

For the parliament, nothing to report...

In short, we wrote to President Roberta Metsola to ask her what her position was on this potential conflict of interest. After a few weeks (and a kind reminder), we finally received a five-line response: “Civil servant status establishes a series of legal and ethical obligations. Most of these obligations relate to the behavior of civil servants in the exercise of their functions and include an obligation of independence, which means that he cannot derive any personal, financial or other advantage from the exercise of his functions and a duty of discretion. The administration, the department in charge mentioned, provides support for the work of the President of the Delegation in charge of relations with Kazakhstan in complete impartiality. No element was noted which

would fall under a failure with the obligations related to the statute of the civil servants”.

Civil servant status establishes a series of legal and ethical obligations. Most of these obligations relate to the behavior of civil servants in the exercise of their functions and include an obligation of independence.

So Niccolo Rinaldi manages to be both "totally impartial" when he deals with the Kazakhstan while taking a stand against this country alongside activists who are openly hostile. A tour de force, we will admit. In summary: “Move on, there is nothing to see”.

This extreme tolerance of an institution which has promised us transparency, but is slow to deliver it, is perhaps explained by the fact that Mr. Rinaldi was first a senior official in Parliament, before being elected there on the Italian radical lists and to sit there as a deputy then, not re-elected, to return to it as a senior official. Once again, a case that seems to fall under illusionism and which would allow a sad spirit to wonder about the “independence” and the “total impartiality” of the person concerned.

It is not certain, in any case, that the European Parliament will restore a coat of arms durably tarnished by the corruption of Qatargate by not applying to its civil servants (paid by our taxes, let us recall it) rules a little stricter. We were going to write “a little more serious”. Because frankly the response we received is anything but serious.

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