The European Commission announced yesterday changes in its policy on business trips after admitting that Qatar, a country suspected of participating in the bribery scheme in the European Parliament, financed nine flights to Doha, with their hotel stays, to its director general of Transport , Henrik Hololei. The tightening of the rules, explained its spokesman, Dana Spinant, will limit the acceptance of offers of “hospitality” by third countries and organizations to those made by the UN, the G7 or the G20. Brussels assures that it began to review its regulations as a result of Qatargate, but the explanations have only come after Politico Europe revealed Hololei’s trips and the EU Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, wrote yesterday asking about the issue.
“In the context of the current scandal with members and former members of the European Parliament and countries outside the EU, the role of third parties and how they try to influence European public officials is once again under scrutiny,” O’Leary says in his letter to the president of the community executive, Ursula von der Leyen, in reference to Qatargate. “Such a scandal is a gift to those who want to harm or discredit the whole of the EU,” she stresses.
O’Reilly reminds Von der Leyen that it is necessary to maintain “strong ethical rules and full transparency” about interactions with lobbyists, hence his concern about the revelations about the trips made by the Director General of Transportation between 2015 and 2021 “to expenses covered by the Qatari authorities”, in some cases in full negotiations of the bilateral agreement on air transport. This matter “raises legitimate concerns about the possibility of undue influence on the EU decision-making process.”
Brussels assures that such a risk does not exist since it was not he who was in charge of these conversations, although the officials who work for him were. Brussels ensures that the cases of travel by officials paid by third parties are “extremely limited”, only 1.5% of the total, 0.1% in the case of officials with the rank of director general, and “in general” within of the EU. The European Commission’s explanations about who authorized these trips caused perplexity during yesterday’s informative briefing: it is the director general who makes the decision, so in this case he himself estimated that there was no risk of conflict of interest and authorized himself the trip itself.
