Brussels, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) A Vice President of the European Parliament has been charged in Qatargate scandal over allegations that World Cup host Qatar paid huge bribes to influence EU policy.
Eva Kaili has been stripped of her powers after investigators reportedly found bags of cash in her home. She’s one of four people arrested so far in connection with a scandal.
Eva Kaili Is Now Front Face of Qatargate Corruption Scandal
High-level EU officials stand accused in an alleged influence buying scheme by Qatar. One of them is Eva Kaili. She is one of the parliament’s vice presidents. Recently, Kylie had become a vocal defender of the gulf country.
In her address to European Parliament, she was reportedly said “They (Qatar) are a new generation of intelligent high-educated people. They helped us to reduce that the attention with turkey. They helped us with Afghanistan to save activists, children and women. They helped us and they are peace negotiators. They are good neighbours and partners.”
Kylie even praised Qatar as a front runner in labour rights. World Cup host Qatar has faced wide criticism for mistreatment of the migrant workers who built new stadiums. Qatar has denied using any illegal means of lobbying. Eva Kaili remains in police custody along with three other people. She has been suspended from her duties as vice president as well as from membership in her party. She and the other three people arrested have been charged with participation in a criminal organisation, money laundering and Corruption.
The Scandal is rocking the European Union.
High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, Joseph Borrell said in a statement that “we are very much certainly concerned about this news but I had to act according not only with the facts but the proven evidence that this is a very grief accusation.”
Terry Reintke, MEP (Greens) said, “such grave and massive corruption is obviously not only an individual problem but it really shakes the institution and it is an issue that has to be dealt with on the highest level and in the most urgent way now.”
But as the investigation focuses on long-standing allegations that Qatar brought influence to host the World Cup, The case is likely to raise questions on how countries like Qatar will have access to EU decision makers in the future.
What Transparency International Thinks of Qatargate Scandal?
In a DW program, Vitor Teixeira, a senior policy officer with the anti-corruption organisation Transparency International said:
“What the investigation has shown so far is that not only there’s a vice president of the European Parliament involved, there’s a number of other people. There’s administrators, there’s assistance, there’s former members of parliament. There are people that work for Lobby organisations. There’s a slew of different individuals in different positions. So I would definitely not be surprised if there are more people involved. We have to see that for many years Transparency International has been saying that the European Parliament has subpar integrity and anti-fraud rules which to a large extent have been ignored. But if we consider the level of influence and degree of access that you need to have to be able to allegedly bribe one of the 14 vice presidents of the European Parliament and that is able to go in plenary and speak in defence of your positions. I think it’s a very serious situation that we are living in. This is unprecedented for the last 20 years at least.”
According to Belgium prosecutors, the suspects in this case were paid large sums of money and offered substantial gifts to influence the European parliament’s decisions. The raids that were conducted by the police over the course of the weekend to turn up 600,000 Euros bags of cash were reportedly found in the home of Eva Kaili. It is of course very damaging for the reputation and integrity of the EU parliament.
Journalist DW Bureau Chief, Alexandra Von Nahmen pointed out that the prosecutors are not pointing fingers. Qatar stands accused of bribing the suspects in order to influence the European parliament’s decisions. Qatar that is now hosting the soccer World Cup country that has been facing a lot of criticism and and allegations for instance when it comes to the question how they got the right to host the World Cup or when it comes to the conditions under which migrant workers were building the country’s stadium
Now Qatar is blamed to be allegedly behind all of this. Qatar mission to the European Union has issued a statement denying all the allegations saying that ‘they are baseless, and gravely misled, The mission said that they do not have anything to do with that and Qatar is complying with international law.
