General secretary suspended

Corruption allegations led the International Confederation of Trade Unions (ICTU) to suspend its general secretary, Luca Visentini, in December, only a month after he had taken up the post.

Visentini has been linked to Pier Antonio Panzeri, the MEP at the heart of an international investigation into allegations that Qatar and Morocco sought to influence EU lawmakers through bribes.

Visentini admitted to taking thousands of euros in cash from Panzeri, but denied it was connected to a corruption attempt. He said it was “aimed at reimbursing some of the costs incurred to finance my campaign for the ITUC congress”.

He was taken into police custody in Belgium and released after 48 hours but was banned for three months from leaving the EU without permission.

The ICTU had been accused by human rights group FairSquare of a “failure to speak out against serious abuses by the Qatari authorities” in the run up to the World Cup, including stating that the abusive “kafala” employment system was “dead”. The ITUC rejected this, saying its work on Qatar had been “entirely based on objective analysis and assessment of the facts, and any suggestion that any other entity, from Qatar or anywhere else, has influenced the ITUC’s position is entirely false”.

However, an extraordinary meeting of the ICTU general council on 21 December decided to suspend Visentini until it meets on 11 March when it will consider the matter further, adding that “this in no way implies any presumption of guilt”.