Panama Committee eyes corruption, money laundering

The European Parliament’s Panama Committee of Inquiry met today in Brussels where MEPs heard a presentation from the investigative journalists that form of part of International Consortium for Investigative Journalism.

The Head of the PN Delegation in European Parliament David Casa MEP who is a full member of the committee and present for the exchanges stated: 

“Today we heard from the journalists themselves about the way in they conducted their work and the relevance of the information that was released. This was followed by a discussion of Committee members concerning how we would like to focus our work. It is clear that the Committee will address two main issues – that regarding taxation - but also and in my view more crucially the issue of corruption and money laundering”. 

MEP Roberta Metsola who is also a full member of the committee said "we saw today that the Committee would look at how to improve the protection of whistleblowers and will emerge with proposals how to facilitate transparency and fight tax evasion and corruption. Over the next year, the Committee will continue to meet to discuss how the EU can move forward on this issue. It is clear that this scandal will not go away and I hope that Member States and any witnesses who may be called cooperate fully with the Committee's line of inquiry."

The committee has a one-year mandate which expires on 8 June 2017. The mandate can be prolonged twice by three months.