Qatar is said to have bribed four members of the European Parliament. For Chancellor Olaf Schultz, this is not a reason to reconsider gas supplies from Qatar.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz sees no reason to reconsider gas supplies from Qatar due to allegations of corruption. It was a matter of clarifying the allegations against those who may have been bribed and the bribes, Schultz said Wednesday in Brussels after an EU-ASEAN summit on allegations of corruption in the European Parliament. “This is an issue in itself. It must be clarified by itself,” he stressed when asked about gas supplies. Qatar is suspected of being behind bribery attempts, but it vehemently denies it.
At the summit, Schulz was represented by French President Emmanuel Macron, who traveled to Qatar for the World Cup semi-finals. There France played Morocco in the evening.
MEPs are said to have been bribed by Qatar
Belgian prosecutors suspect Greek Eva Kaili and three other members of the European Parliament of accepting bribes from Qatar to influence EU policies. “We have been … very naive for a very long time,” said a spokesman for the Belgian Ministry of Justice, referring to the covert operations carried out by foreign powers in Belgium.
The spokesman described the investigation as “an important case in which the (Belgian) State Security has been working for more than a year in cooperation with foreign intelligence services to list suspicions of corruption of deputies from different countries.”
Belgian police released a photo of the €1.5m cash they seized in raids Friday through Monday, including a bag filled with 50 and 100 € banknotes and two bags with 50 € banknotes neatly stacked. There were also searches in Italy.
