A senior EU official has resigned after it was revealed that he had accepted multiple sponsored trips to Qatar since taking office in 2015, in the latest of several scandals involving EU officials and the Gulf State.
On Wednesday, the Director-General of the European Commission's department for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) Henrik Hololei, an Estonian national, announced that he would be vacating his position from 1 April. He will instead work as a political adviser at the Commission's Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA).
Last month, Politico reported that Hololei had enjoyed nine free business class flights with Qatar Airways over the period from 2015 to 2021. Six of the flights took place while the Commission was negotiating a highly lucrative aviation agreement with Qatar; four of these were sponsored by the Qatari Government, or by a group with close ties to Doha.
The agreement, signed on 18 October 2021 but not yet formally ratified by all EU Member States, provides Qatar Airways (the state-owned flagship carrier of the Gulf peninsula) with unrestricted access to Europe's airspace and aviation market.
Undue influence?
Hololei's resignation followed a formal letter sent earlier this month to the European Commission by European Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly, which asked the Commission to clarify its procedures and rules concerning EU officials' business trips paid for by third parties.
O'Reilly, who as Ombudsman is tasked with investigating instances of potential administrative malpractice throughout the EU institutions, specifically referred to Hololei's case in her letter.
"The Qatari Government and organisations close to it paying for travel expenses for DG MOVE's most senior official gives rise to legitimate questions around possible undue influence of the EU's decision-making in this area," O'Reilly wrote.
The latest EU scandal involving Hololei comes just months after the disclosure of the Qatargate corruption scandal, according to which senior EU parliamentary officials are alleged to have received bribes and other favours from the Qatari Government in exchange for supporting pro-Qatari legislation.
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Several parliamentary officials implicated in the scandal are reported to have accepted funded trips to Qatar. These include Belgian MEP Marie Arena (S&D), who failed to declare that her accommodation and flights to and from Doha on 8 and 9 May last year had been paid for by the Qatari Government, as well as fellow Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella (S&D), who did not declare a similar trip to the Gulf peninsula in February 2020.
The failure to declare sponsored trips, however, has also affected MEPs who are ostensibly not involved in the Qatargate scandal. These include Belgian MEP Tom Vandenkendelaere (EPP) as well as, most notably, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola.
In January this year, the Maltese MEP formally declared that she had undertaken up to five trips that were partially funded by third parties over the period from May to October 2022 — long after the deadline for declaring such trips had passed. Under current parliamentary rules, MEPs are required to fill in the required paperwork "no later than the last day of the month following the last day" of any trip funded in whole or in part by a third party.
