EU to Hold on to Visa-Free Regime for Qataris Following Corruption Scandal Including Parliament’s Vice President

According to Politico, the Belgian prosecutors charged the Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili and three others with corruption after a major investigation for a potential illicit influence campaign by Qatar had occurred, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.

Roberta Metsola, the European Parliament President has confirmed that the file will now go to the justice and home affairs committee (LIBE), with this announcement being made in Monday’s plenary meeting where the majority of MEPs supported the measure.

Previously, Erik Marquardt, the lead parliamentarian on the file, has said that proposing the visa-free regime for Qataris was made in hopes of working together to improve the situation, while there were many reports that Qatar had failed to respect the human rights of its own citizens on many occasions.

The file that proposed for Qatari nationals to be allowed of visiting the EU for 90 days without applying for a visa, provided they had a biometric passport, was sent to the LIBE committee in April, following the European Commission’s announcement and authorities were quite positive regarding this measure.

This measure was expected to increase the intensity and depth of EU relations with Qatar and Kuwait as Commission Vice President, Margaritis Schinas had said at the time.

Although there were concerns about human rights in Qatar MEPs in the LIBE Committee were planning to vote this month, with Kaili also doing so despite not being a member of the committee, in addition to MEP Marc Tarabella, whose house was raided by authorities recently under allegations of the corruption affair.

Marquardt revealed that he was approached by Kaili regarding the issue of Qatar and, according to him, it was very obvious she was in favour of granting the country visa-free travel.

 “For 25 minutes, Eva Kaili talked only about Qatar and why that country should have visa liberalization. I got really annoyed. The whole meeting was just an ambush, to try to help the Qatari regime, it was never about the situation of Iranian children during the protests,” Abit Al-Sahlani, another MEP said regarding a meeting she had with Kaili.