What's The Qatargate Scandal?
A corruption scandal has rocked Europe involving Eva Kaili VP of the European Parliament. The said official was accused for taking bribes from Qatar to influence policies in its favor and block criticism against it.
What happened?
The scandal broke on the morning of December 9 when Belgium police carried out a series of raids across Brussels and arrested six people. This includes Kaili and Antonio Panzeri a former member of the European Parliament, who were implicated in money laundering and corruption scandal. Questions were also raised about Margaritis Schinas, VP of European Commission, who praised Qatar’s labour reforms.
The allegations include influencing EU policymakers, with Qatar funding her to security policies in favour of it. The police have found thousands of Euros in Kaili’s possession across a range of private locations. The idea is to whitewash Qatar as a country in light of the recently concluded FIFA World Cup. Panzeri, who ran an NGO Fight Impunity, collected the finances, where individuals associated with the NGO and serving as parliamentary assistants to European members of Parliament were arrested in this scandal.
Why does Qatar need this influence?
It is an energy-rich country trying to sell natural as to the EU at a time when the latter is trying to cut its dependence on Russian energy supplies. It has already signed a lucrative deal with Germany for LNG. Second, Fifa World Cup has put Qatar’s controversial views on LGBTQ and Kamala system in the spotlight. Third, Qatar is also trying to secure a relaxed visa regime for Qatari citizens wishing to enter the European Schengen area. As per some reports, 6500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since World Cup preparations started.
Despite these issues, Kaili openly praised Qatar’s human rights record. On the contrary, the official openly criticized Doha for its human rights policy. Following this episode, Kaili was expelled from the Greek political party Pasok. While the jury is still out, evidence points toward the accused
