Is Qatar BRIBING the EU? #Qatargate

The EU is caught in the midst of one if its largest scandals ever. So what actually happened? What consequences does it have on our European democracy? Between Qatari interests, MEPs, European institutions, foreign bribes and interest groups, Qatargate can be pretty hard to piece together. This video helps explain the situation, the key actors involved, and what is being done by the EU to solve the crisis in a simple manner. This video is part of a series covering recent EU news and topics in a 3-minute digestible format.

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Source 1: Politico, Qatargate, who is being investigated

Source 2: Euronews, Socialist MEPS Step Down

Source 3: Euronews, Four Linked to EU Parliament Arrested Amid Suspiscions

Source 4: Politico Youtube, the Key Players

Source 5: EU Observer, Metsola pledges EU PArliament Reform

Source 6: Euractiv, Qatar ‘ghost’ vote exposes MEP Eva Kaili

Source 7: Euractiv, ‘Qatargate’ reshuffles the cards ahead of Greek elections

Source 8: Euractiv, Eva Kaili’s partner confesses role in Qatargate, Morocco comes under the spotlight

Source 9: Euractiv, EU Parliament suspends work with Qatar as MEPs demand corruption probe

Source 10: Euronews, EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola promises reforms to prevent corruption

Source 11: Euronews, Corruption scandal: MEPs vote to suspend Qatar access to EU Parliament and halt related legislation

Source 12: POLITICO, Qatargate: How the key players are connected

Source 13: VRT, Confession in European Parliament corruption probe

Source 14: European Parliament, Parliament votes on termination of the office of a Vice-President

[stefan-pziy]

Not only with Qatar, also with morroco, morrocogate

[forzaazzurri]

In the US this happens every day, it’s called lobbying. At least we Europeans recognize this as a corruption case.

[postpiet]

Corruption is something normal with that kind of power. But good they get arrested. It is a hot point for the anti eu people to press. But making corruption harder is always a good thing!

[nikolaostrimpos]

I would rather see corruption been exposed, no matter how harmful could be rather than pretend we live in paradise. As a Greek citizen, i say bravo to the Belgian Police for uncovering this and may Europe take lessons from it.

[geheimnis]

Corruption is inevitable, it's actually really good that they got caught. This scandal only made me like the eu more

[pieterjan]

They HAVE everything.

And still they WANT more.

[harmoniacaotica]

Where people and power exist, so does corruption. Anyone using this to weaken the EU is either a fool or a corrupt talking to fools. The fact this was investigated, acted on and publicly admited only gives me more trust on the EU, not less. Obviously there's a lot of money and influence within the EU and it's members so corruption will always be present and needed to be dealt with.

[koiyujo]

As an american I'm glad the EU prevented this could of gone pretty south for the EU if they didn't find out about this

[hanna_GG]

They did bad things BUT now they are in jail. The system is working pretty well I think :) it can be (and it must be) improved but still works :)

[simonbarnes]

Registering meetings will make no difference. Meetings where a bribe is suggested will never be made on the books and so it will always be down to the police to track it down. You could have also mentioned the ongoing corruption scandal in Germany concerning defence procurement. Guess who was the minister in charge of German defence at that time?

[JD-jlyy]

If you're a public servant and get convicted of corruption > jail for life.

[pereveciana]

The Kalli-Giorgi scandal is the tip of the iceberg. Who genuinely believes there aren’t many more MEPs bribed by Morocco and Qatar did not get caught red-handed?

The fact that the European parliament refused to name Morocco in the scandal, despite overwhelming evidence that it has been involved much more extensively than Qatar, is extremely fishy.
Morocco has known for years that it can influence EU politics big time with relatively modest handouts

[oquemaur]

Not sure that this is the place where you will find an impartial answer

[alexandrinabob]

EPPO and Codruta Kovesi should have double the amount of money in the future years to come. I'm sure there are many more corruption cases, and at least the bigger ones should be caught to discourage the others from doing it so easy.

[HessionDrasha]

If this happened in the uk, i doubt anyone would have been investigated, let alone prosecuted.

[limazulu]

How about covering the corruption scandal with the cocaine terminals in Rotterdam with the ongoing bribes? Dutch love to lectures others about bribes, but ironically turns out they are now officially one of Europe's cocaine capitals.

[fredericocunha]

I am a full european supporter and my grandma is a former Mep that focused on fighting corruption so I absolutely dislike the argument that "corruption is inevitable and the system is working couse they were caught so nothing needs to change and I actually like the EU even more". So if it's inevitable there is no point in fighting it because it is well, inevitable ?! And the EU is just a corrupt institution and there's just nothing we can do about it?! These are exactly the arguments that impossibilitate reform and places the EUin a pedestal instead of realizing its flaws a try to solve them. And although it's great that they were caught (the ones we know of at least) we are talking about 3rd wrld countries that corrupted Meps in a real simple way and easy to get caught now imagine bigger countries like Russia or China, these guys are much more professional at handing bribes (like buying and selling real estate to a middle man that sets an offshore transaction to the corrupted mep) thatdon't just literally give out duffel bags full of cash.

[queen_elizabeth]

notice how most of them are italian 😵‍💫

[adilachahbar]

Morocco does not offer bribes because we are a relatively poor country, but the Moroccan intelligence agency has a long history of success I do not think that Morocco gave a bribe Rather, I think that Morocco is skilled at persuading others

[FenixionZX]

Also morroco ? ffs they are already ruining Spain now the EU