Qatargate: Romanian MEP Admits He Accepted Luxury Trips from Qatari Officials

The recent corruption scandal connected to Qatar, the host of the current Football World Cup, led to the arrest of the VicePresident of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili, along with other accomplices. Among other accusations, the most prominent was that the criminal group accepted large sums of money as bribes from the Qatari officials to decide in favour of this Middle Eastern country politically. Another accusation is that, for the money offered, Eva Kaili should’ve projected a favourable image of the Qatari Government, especially concerning human rights.

But this seems to be a generalized behaviour. As unveiled by Romanian journalists from the Romanian tabloid newspaper Libertatea, there is a similar behaviour of one of the Romanian MEPs, Cristian Busoi, who admitted he had travelled to Doha and the Qatari officials paid for these luxurious trips. He defended himself and said it was a common practice among European officials. He also said it didn’t influence his decisions or votes, as he didn’t take any.

Busoi is the President of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy in the European Parliament. Not only that, but he also led the Qatar Friendship Group in the European Parliament. The Romanian journalists found similar public and political opinions expressed by the Qatari officials and Cristian Busoi. Among other ideas, Busoi praised the way Qatar respects human rights but also voiced the Qatari interests in dealing with the European Union for exporting gas.

Meanwhile, Eva Kaili is arrested and seems to be only the tip of the iceberg in Brussels. The Qatargate scandal is only at the beginning, and it is expected for such practices to be unveiled and lots of other European officials to be exposed to the public for their deeds.

Is it politically and morally correct for foreign governments to pay for the trips of European officials? Isn’t the European Union able to cover all the expenses for the MEPs officially travelling to other countries?

If the European institutions cannot stop such practices, there will always be the suspicion that the officials took a certain decision or gave a certain vote in return for the foreign countries’ favours.