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Qatargate should have been a wake-up call. Instead, it’s just another reminder: the European Parliament is still wide open to outside influence, weakened by lax oversight and a culture of crisis management.
Transparency International EU doesn’t mince words: the scandal laid bare a system of influence-peddling, and the promised reforms to fix it are still nowhere to be seen.
It’s in this context that the Dainius Zalimas affair has erupted. Zalimas, a sitting MEP and former president of Lithuania’s Constitutional Court, is now at the center of a preliminary investigation launched in May by Lithuania’s Attorney General.
The inquiry concerns alleged accounting fraud at the Centre for Law and Democracy—a non-governmental organization (NGO) supporting the Belarusian opposition and previously headed by Zalimas.
Complaints from a fellow MEP and a Lithuanian MP allege potentially illegal use of public and private funds between 2021 and 2025. Zalimas himself calls it disinformation.
But it’s the numbers that make this case explosive. According to Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT, the centre received roughly €246,000 ($282,131) in support over three years—more than €30,000 of which reportedly landed directly in Zalimas’s own pocket. The fact that the center was founded in 2021 and liquidated in 2025 has already raised eyebrows, with some seeing it as a tactic to avoid audits.
Belarusian opposition figures have publicly questioned the organization’s transparency as well. Zalimas insists the accounts are in order, that no donor has complained, and that the authorities are simply checking documents.
The European Parliament certainly has reason for concern. Zalimas is no minor figure: elected in 2024 on the Freedom Party ticket, he currently sits as an MEP.
On the Parliament’s official site, he is listed as a member of the Legal Affairs Committee, vice-chair of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, and a participant in delegations with Belarus and the United States. In short, this is far from just a Lithuanian affair.
Zalimas’ defenders are right about one thing: an investigation is not a conviction. He asserts he is “100% certain” that no criminal charges will be brought against him and refuses to step down. That’s his prerogative. But it doesn’t change the fact that the Parliament keeps asking for the public’s trust, while repeatedly failing to police itself before scandals break.
What makes this particular case so sensitive is its political dimension. In Lithuania, Zalimas is a lightning rod for conservative and nationalist anger. As a former Constitutional Court president, he joined the Freedom Party to champion progressive causes—stances his critics see as incompatible with the country’s “traditional values.”
He often sought support from European institutions when national politics heated up. These are political grievances, but they help explain why the scandal is about more than bookkeeping—it raises questions about the true independence of Lithuanian officials.
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That's why this scandal is bigger than one man.
When money moves through NGOs, legal aid projects, and Belarus-focused democracy programs without clear public reporting, it breeds a shadow political economy—generous to insiders, opaque to everyone else, and untraceable once spent.
This isn't about one center or one official. It's about a Parliament where Zalimas holds real power.
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