The EU Parliament’s Qatar-gate Scandal Doesn’t Make Sense—Yet 

The EU Parliament’s Qatar-gate Scandal Doesn’t Make Sense—Yet 
Greek politician and European Parliament Vice-President Eva Kaili speaks during the European Book Prize award ceremony in Brussels, Dec. 7, 2022 (European Parliament photo via AP).

Brussels has been rocked this week by the biggest corruption scandal to hit the city in decades. Amid all the fevered speculation, the biggest question on the minds of many now is: Who will be next to be implicated?

The scandal broke last week when Belgian law enforcement detained six people and later released two, as part of a probe into suspected bribery of European Parliament officials by a Gulf state. One of the parliament’s vice presidents, the center-left Greek legislator Eva Kaili, was among those arrested.

The details of the allegations are as lurid as they are perplexing. The Gulf state in question, believed to be Qatar although that has not been confirmed officially by Belgian prosecutors, is alleged to have bribed several EU Parliament officials in order to influence EU policy toward Qatar in the runup to the 2022 World Cup, which Qatar is hosting. The individuals accused of receiving payments include Kaili, her boyfriend who currently serves as a legislative assistant to another member of parliament, a former Italian MEP who now heads a Brussels-based NGO and another parliamentary assistant. Kaili, whose vice-presidential remit focuses on the Middle East, recently described Qatar as a “frontrunner in labor rights” and made a personal visit to the country even after Doha blocked a visit by a larger group of MEPs that it suspected would be more critical of its labor rights policies.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

More World Politics Review