Belgian investigators seek arrest of ex-EU commissioner in Qatar bribery probe

Belgian investigators moved to arrest former EU commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, pushing the Qatargate probe into the ranks of the bloc’s senior political class. A Belgian investigating judge issued a European arrest warrant linked to the long-running bribery case, and a Greek government official confirmed the move.

The warrant keeps alive a scandal that first erupted in December 2022 and has become one of the most serious corruption cases to hit the 27-member European Union. Belgian raids uncovered more than 1.5 million euros in cash, including money found stuffed into a large suitcase in a Brussels hotel. Investigators say the case involves allegations that Qatar and other non-EU countries tried to buy influence over EU policymaking by paying off officials and intermediaries.

Avramopoulos served as European commissioner for migration until 2019 and later joined Fight Impunity, the NGO founded by former Italian MEP Antonio Panzeri, one of the central figures in the broader probe. He now sits in the Greek parliament for the ruling New Democracy party. The warrant matters because it reaches beyond aides and fixers to a former commissioner, a level of access that goes to the heart of how vulnerable EU institutions can be to foreign influence.

Avramopoulos denied wrongdoing and said there was no direct or indirect involvement in anything reprehensible. He said he would not try to rely on parliamentary immunity and would ask the Greek judiciary to fully investigate the matter. Later reporting said he was also willing to have his immunity lifted. Qatar has consistently denied wrongdoing.

The case has stayed active through immunity fights and hearings, years after the first police raids. It has already implicated figures including Eva Kaili and Francesco Giorgi, while the wider network around Fight Impunity drew in other senior EU figures such as Bernard Cazeneuve, Federica Mogherini and Emma Bonino. Transparency International has called Qatargate the most egregious corruption case the European Parliament has faced.

The scandal also exposed the limits of the EU’s own ethics machinery. In 2023, the European Ombudsman said Qatargate undermined the European Parliament’s reputation and opened a strategic initiative on Parliament ethics and transparency in January that year. The Parliament later worked on a 14-point reform proposal, but anti-corruption groups said too little changed. With the probe still reaching upward, the question is no longer only who took the money. It is whether Brussels can prove it is capable of policing itself.