THE The first revelations about Qatargate, in mid-December, had raised the question of the extent of the interference by States outside the Union – Qatar, Morocco or even Mauritania – in the functioning of the European Parliament. But from the end of last year, many wondered: were other EU institutions going to be splashed in the process?
Since a investigation published on February 27 by Politico, eyes are now on the Commission, the EU’s executive. Thanks to a procedure access to documents, the newspaper revealed that the head of the Commission’s Directorate-General for Transport, the Estonian Henrik Hololei, had traveled free of charge, in business class, on nine occasions, on Qatar Airways flights, over the period 2015-2021.
Henrik Hololei during a meeting of the Transport and Tourism Committee at the European Parliament in Brussels, October 11, 2016.
However, from 2016, the European Commission was negotiating an air agreement with Qatar, concluded in October 2021. This agreement notably facilitated the access of Qatari companies, including Qatar Airways, to EU airports. Still according to Politico, four of the nine trips were supported directly by Qatar or by a structure linked to the Qatari authorities.
In office since 2015 at the head of the “DG” mobility and transport, Henrik Hololei refused to comment. This Monday, the Union’s mediator, Emily O’Reilly, responsible for ensuring the transparency of the workings of the EU, urged the executive of Ursula von der Leyen to provide information on the way in which the institution supervises the support of missions abroad of its staff by third parties.
Over the days since last week, the reactions of the Commission have evolved. She first pointed out that Henrik Hololei had not participated directly in the negotiations with Qatar on the air agreement, even if the group of negotiators in question did indeed belong to the DG he heads. She then indicated that any risk of conflict of interest had been weighed, then excluded, at the time of each of these trips, in accordance with the “rules in force”.
But during the traditional press briefing of the Commission this Monday noon, spokespersons made a new clarification: it was Henrik Hololei who himself underestimated the possible risk of a conflict of interest, during each of his trips. “It is up to the director general of the department to authorize missions abroad for his department. […] The person who signs, to say whether or not there is a conflict of interest, is himself.explained Balazs Ujvari.
In order to attenuate the shock wave, the Commission also points out that these assumptions of responsibility by third parties are extremely rare: they concern, according to the Community executive, 1.5% of all the missions (and 0.2% for heads of directorates-general alone). She is also committed to tighten the rules authorizing this type of expenditure for its personnel.
In its investigation, Politico also notes that Henrik Hololei had rented in February 2019 “sincere commitment and sustained dialogue” between the EU and Qatar, and that he had again met, in June 2019, the Qatari transport minister, Jassim Saif Ahmed al-Sulaiti.
The aviation agreement concluded between the EU and Qatar has already entered into force on a provisional basis. But in theory it still needs to be ratified by EU member states, but also by the European Parliament. At this point, in response to Qatargate, MEPs have suspended their work aimed at ratifying this text.
The Hololei affair, on the side of the Commission, seems to highlight, once again, the flaws in a system of self-control specific to the institutions of the EU, which for years has fueled the calls of activists and MEPs for the creation of an independent body responsible for ethical issues within the EU.
At the end of last week, environmental MEPs, including the German Daniel Freund or the French Karima Delli, who chairs the transport committee within the hemicycle, wrote their concerns to the transport commissioner, the Romanian Adina Valean.
These elected officials also note that Henrik Hololei had not taken care to declare online any of the meetings he had, during these famous trips to Doha, with the lobby of Qatari airlines, the Arab Air Carriers Organization. , which had supported some of its flights. Commissioners, cabinet members and senior officials of the Commission are expected to publish such meetings on the Commission’s website.