Robbery at the European Parliament!

Emerging from weeks of the corona-induced lockdown that has all but put Brussels and the EU institutions in hibernation since March, dozens of MEPs have been greeted with even more bad news as at least 50 MEPs appear to have had computers, tablets and other items stolen from their European Parliament offices while they were subjected to the lockdown.

According to a parliament spokesman, some of the burglaries appear to have taken place sometime in April, a month after Parliament President David Sassoli introduced strict measures to ban access to outside visitors. The assembly, according to the Parliament Spokesman, had been informed of the break-ins, which occurred while the building was, for the most part, empty as most of the MEPs and their staff were working from their home countries while the lockdown was in full effect.

The European Parliament’s Directorate-General for Security, known as DG SAFE, has come under intense criticism from MEPs for the breach, with many saying they were disappointed by the lack of response from the directorate.

While many MEPs said reported that valuable items, equipment, and personal belongings had been taken or rifled through, several other parliamentarians, including MEP Massimo Casanova, from Italy’s Lega party, noted that their offices and locked desks had been broken into, but that “no items were missing”.

“For the moment, it is not clear if it is isolated or if there are more widespread cases … the lockdown has increased the chances of such acts as fewer people were in the buildings during the crisis. I can only encourage members and staff to report suspected incidents,” said Dita Charanzova, a Czech MEP from the Renew Europe Group, and a vice president for security.

The estimated annual budget for the security and surveillance of the parliaments’ buildings amounts to more than €23 million in 2020. DG SAFE had 756 members of staff and managed 1.5% of the parliament’s overall budget in 2018.

The chequered past of a shady security service provider

The news of the security breakdown at the parliament is only the latest scandal involving the safety measures of the European institutions.  Nearly a decade ago the European Parliament was forced to cut ties with the world’s largest security provider, the UK’s multinational security services company G4S.

G4S was not known to have shirked its responsibilities in regards to its protection of the European Parliament, scores of MEPs were appalled that G4S ran prison and interrogation centres outside of Europe where torture was regularly practised.

Their anger was further amplified in the years after the torture cases came to light when G4S was continually dogged by accusations of malpractice and mismanagement that included fraud cases that at one point involved Britain’s Ministry of Justice, instances of physical abuse at the company’s immigration centre near London’s Gatwick Airport, and charging €77.5 million for security services at the 2012 London Olympics, though the firm failed to properly staff that year’s summer games.

G4S came under major scrutiny, however, when, in 2016, it emerged that a man who had worked for a G4S subsidiary had sworn allegiance to ISIS and later killed 49 people at a gay night club in Florida.

The company’s history of controversy now raises further questions about G4S’ current relationship with the European institutions, particularly as masked G4S sentries can be found standing guard at the front entrance of the European Parliament in Brussels. Despite the company’s previous “unacceptable behaviour”, the EU institutions continue to maintain contractual relations with the firm. G4S secured a four-year contract in 2019 to provide fire safety, press accreditations, and external surveillance at the European Parliament and continues to be the main provider for security at most of the EU’s key facilities in Brussels and at over two dozen European Union overseas delegations, including Gabon, Gambia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Indonesia, Lebanon, Taiwan, and Ukraine.

G4S was awarded €38 million over six contracts in 2018 to provide guard services, surveillance, and access control at 70 EU buildings in Brussels. The company, with its 500,000 worldwide employees, saw its revenue intake hit €4 billion for the first half of 2019.

While G4S has a global presence, which includes its operations in the heart of the European Union’s de facto capital, the firm is not a signatory to the 2008 Montreux Document that regulates the code of conduct for private military and security companies in conflict zones to ensure that they comply with international human rights and humanitarian law standards.