When you read or hear the world “corruption”, you probably think about a TV series about the Italian mafia or a mayor in a small town that keeps getting elected every few years, but corruption is a widespread phenomenon found even in one of the world’s biggest institution: the European Union.
Today, December 9th, is International Anti-Corruption Day, established to spread awareness on the complex challenges and injustices that people face when this corrupted system takes from their communities and institutions that are meant to protect citizens.
Institutions and Corruption
Institutions are meant to protect us from phenomena like corruption and crime, but sometimes the call comes from inside the house. We know this because of the Qatargate, the inquiry dating back to 2022 that showed us that the people meant to fight corruption with us were the culprits of this corruption all along. In the inquiry, European Parliament officials were accused of engaging in corruption, money laundering, and organized crime.
This might be alarming for the consequences on the EU and the economy, politics and general well-being of its State Members, but the scandal indicates something bigger and worse: it reveals how easy it is for foreign countries to influence, corrupt, and manoeuvre the European Parliament and Union.
EU officials were allegedly accepting monetary gifts and financial benefits from Qatar in return for acting in the country’s interest. They were also being “bought” by Morocco and Mauritania in exchange for influence in operations in the Parliament. These operations will later be known as “Qatargate”.
A lobby of cash, influence with corruption at its core was working behind our backs without us knowing: so, what else are we missing? How big is this corrupted cash-angry web that’s spreading across the European Union? And are our politicians so easy to buy off?
What are we doing against corruption?
Some of the culprits of the Qatargate, Eva Kaili, her husband Francesco Giorgi, and former Member of the EU Parliament Antonio Panzeri, were arrested on the 9th of December 2022, but no justice was made ever since. No formal accusations were made, no charges were pressed, just some MEP detained but nothing more.
We are not taking actual action against political corruption, a phenomenon that benefits from these long wait times. The slow Belgian judiciary enables these matters to occur, allowing and giving time and space for corruption to spread in an institution as large, important and influential as the European Union.
International Anti-Corruption Day 2025
The fight against corruption is long and might seem never-ending. Especially for young people, the future of this corruption-ridden European Union appears dark and frightening. An Anti-corruption essay competition held in 2024, revealed that young people often feel like they’re the first to face the consequences of corruption, usually impacting schools and their programmes, job opportunities and public funding.
The next generation needs to lead the future through anti-corruption efforts, strengthening governance and institutional system, making them corruption-free. Most of all, we need to unite against corruption by speaking up, taking over leadership roles and trying to stay relevant inside the institutions that seem to help, but reveal themselves of being at the core of the problem.
This 9th of December, remember how powerful we are: even if we are young, we can make a change if we keep fighting. Join the 2025 #UnitedAgainstCorruptioncampaign with United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime on social media. Together, we can maintain our integrity.
