Europe

EU parliament strips Eva Kaili of vice president role amid Qatar corruption scandal

Greek legislator denies any wrongdoing after she and others were charged over allegedly receiving cash and gifts from Qatar

Greek politician and European Parliament vice-president Eva Kaili photographed during the European Book Prize award ceremony in Brussels on December 7th. Photograph: European Parliament via AP

Olivia Kelleher
Tue Dec 13 2022 - 12:21

The European Parliament voted on Tuesday to strip Eva Kaili of her role as vice president of the assembly after she and others were charged for allegedly receiving cash and gifts from Qatar in return for influencing decisions.

The parliament voted by 625 votes to one against, with two abstentions, to end her term early. A two-thirds majority was required for her to cease being one of the 14 vice presidents.

Ms Kaili has denied any wrongdoing, as has Qatar.

Ms Kaili, a Greek legislator, was stripped of her role after she was charged in the investigation, in which Belgian police have seized €750,000, in addition to several hundred thousand more euros stuffed in a suitcase. Antonio Panzeri, a former Italian deputy, has also been arrested, according to media reports.

READ MORE

Belgian police on Monday searched the parliament to seize data of 10 parliamentary staff that had been frozen to prevent its disappearance, according to a statement by Belgian prosecutors. A total of 20 searches have been carried out as part of the probe, including some in Italy.

Seals are pictured on the office door of European Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, December 13th 2022. Belgian federal prosecutor said in a statement four of six people including one within the European Parliament were detained and have been charged with 'participation in a criminal organization, money laundering and corruption' and remanded in custody. Photograph: EPA-EFE

European Parliament president Roberta Metsola told reporters Tuesday that she would “leave no stone unturned” in fighting against efforts by third countries to influence the actions of the legislative branch.

She added that she does not want to let the investigation and its aftermath “tarnish an institution that has fought so proudly on rule of law and against corruption.

The investigation is expected to be come up when European Union leaders meet in Brussels for a summit on Thursday, officials said.

European Parliament president Roberta Metsola has said that her institution would "leave no stone unturned" in its effort to tackle corruption.

Earlier on Tuesday, EU ombudsman Emily O’Reilly called for an urgent overhaul of the ethics system in the parliament as the corruption scandal unfolded in recent days.

Ms O’Reilly, in an interview with Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1, said that the reaction to the scandal was some what “predictable”.

“There is nothing like a scandal to have everybody promising to be good in future and to put in place all sorts of things in order to make things better. President von der Leyen, the president of the commission and others came out again supporting an independent ethics body.

“This was something that was first promised by Commissioner von der Leyen when she was campaigning to become president of the commission in 2019 and very little has happened since then,” Ms O’Reilly said.

“The parliament did put through a resolution and a proposal in relation to that which has to be accepted by the council and commission. But so far there is little appetite to do so. One does become a little cynical when one hears these promises being made again.”

Ms O’Reilly said at a point of time when the parliament could have seen these proposals through “they didn’t”.

She said the European system has a failed or non-functioning ethics system because “people don’t want it to be upgraded or overhauled”.

“The EU can respond very rapidly to things that it wants to do as we have seen with the Covid crisis and other crises that have emerged. When it comes to something like this it can certainly drag its feet,” she said.

“The main problem is that it is essentially self policing. There is a body that advises the president in relation to possible breaches of the code of conduct of MEPs – [it] can only advise and then it is up to the president to decide whether she accepts the advice or not and if she does decide that it is a breach what sanction, if any, to impose.

“President von der Leyen again yesterday was talking about their own ethics body. But that is also relatively toothless because it has to wait for an instruction or a request from the commission in order to open an investigation. It has no own initiative powers,” Ms O’Reilly said.

“You have to put under the spotlight a lot of the claims and the lamenting that took place yesterday after this latest scandal. In my experience as a political journalist and as ombudsman in Ireland and here, I know things change only when there are political champions for change and when there is a scandal so perhaps there are genuine political champions emerging. We will see what happens when the political furore surrounding this dies down.”

Ms O’Reilly was first elected as the European ombudsman in July 2013. Following the European Parliament elections, she was re-elected for a five-year mandate in December 2014 and again in December 2019.

Previously, she had been Ireland’s first woman Ombudsman and Information Commissioner, having been appointed in 2003, and was Commissioner for Environmental Information from 2007. – additional reporting: Agencies

LATEST STORIES