Three months before she was arrested for her central role in Qatargate, Eva Kaili, her former assistant and an ex-consultant co-founded a platform in Brussels that lobbies for emerging technologies. Kaili's failure to disclose her connection to the organisation means she broke yet another set of EU rules.
An investigation led by Follow The Money, Le Soir, Knack and Reporters United has revealed fresh revelations about the dubious onset of lobbying at the heart of the European Parliament.
Eva Kaili, Vice-President of the Parliament at the time, set up the Brussels Council for Technological Innovation and Global Development in September 2022. Known as the Brussels Council, the platform aimed to "create a global network in new technologies" and "campaign, lobby and advocate to influence regulatory activities."
Eva Kaili. Credit: EP Photo
High-tech firms wishing to join this platform could be asked to pay up to €250,000 annually for their admission, while membership for NGOs and other organisations cost €50,000.
Kaili left the Brussels Council in December 2022 while imprisoned in Haren. However, her co-founders included Kaili's former assistant Dimitrios Psarrakis and Jacques Bughin, a former Senior Partner at McKinsey in Belgium, remained active members.
However, the Council's activities are vague at best. Psarrakis and Bughin claim it was never in operation yet post photos of the organisation's presence at events. Some of these posts were briefly taken down before the investigation in question came to light.
A corrupt cast
All three figures at the helm of the lobbying project are currently being investigated in criminal cases.
Kaili was arrested in December 2022 when a suitcase of €720,000 under her father's care and a further €150,000 in a hotel room was found to belong to her. It is suspected that the cash originated from Qatari bribes. The Greek politician was expelled from her party and spent four month in prison. Upon her release, she returned to Parliament as an independent MEP.
Her counterparts Psarrakis and Bughin removed her from leadership of the Brussels Council for fear of a "reputational disaster". However, the former is also implicated in Qatargate as Kaili's former assistant who allegedly received fraudulent payments.
Bughin is involved in a separate investigation, that of the 'Nethys Affair', which first rocked Belgium in 2017. The scandal revealed that regional officials from Les Engagés, the Socialist Party (PS) and Mouvement Réformateur (MR) had received payments of up to €500 per minute for bogus meetings with Publifin (now Enodia). Publifin is the parent company of Nethys, which distributes electricity in Liège.
Jacques Bughin. Credit: Flickr
Bughin was officially charged for criminal conspiracy, misuse of corporate assets and embezzlement of public funds in 2021, but these details merely dented his career trajectory. The former McKinsey consultant joined the international advisory board STOA chaired by Kaili in 2020, and the pair founded the Brussels Council in 2021.
Psarrakis told reporters he was unaware of the charges against Bughin despite extensive coverage by Belgian media.
Breaking the rules, again
EU lawmakers are obliged to inform the European Parliament President of any involvement in companies or organisations by the end of the next month. The information must also be published on the Parliament's website.
Kaili never disclosed these details, and her lawyer told the investigation she never had any role in the Brussels Council despite the organisation listing her as director before her arrest.
"The problem is that they don’t take it seriously, because there’s never any kind of consequence," commented EU director of Transparency International Nick Aoissa.
