The Eurocámara begins the process to dismiss this noon the vice president accused of corruption

BRUSELAS, 13 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The plenary session of the European Parliament will vote this noon on the removal as vice president of the chamber of the Greek socialist Eva Kaili, arrested in Belgium for her alleged involvement in a corruption scheme that involves the payment of bribes by Qatar to gain influence in the decision of political and economic decisions in the European institution.

This was announced by the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, in an extraordinary intervention during the plenary session held in Strasbourg (France) to inform the MEPs of the activation of the process to strip Kaili of the position of vice president.

According to the rules of the European Parliament, the dismissal of any of its fourteen vice-presidents must be carried out following a two-phase process and which includes article 21 of the institution's operating regulations.

The first step was completed early this Tuesday by the group leaders of all the groups with representation in the Eurochamber by agreeing "unanimously" in an extraordinary meeting of the Conference of Presidents to request the Chamber to remove the socialist vice president Greek.

The vote will take place at noon and for it to go ahead it must have the majority support of two thirds of the votes expressed in the session. Metsola already decided over the weekend to immediately suspend all her powers, duties and representation functions as president, but she could not proceed to remove her because this is a power that falls exclusively to the plenary session of the Eurochamber .

However, this decision does not prevent Kaili from continuing to occupy her seat as an MEP despite being detained, pending her appearance in court this Wednesday. The parliamentary immunity that protects MEPs, however, did not prevent her arrest over the weekend because such protection is suspended if the authorities act before a "flagrant crime".

Since last Friday, the Belgian Police have carried out about twenty searches, mainly in offices of the European Parliament headquarters in Brussels but also in the homes of several MEPs. In Kaili's home the authorities seized about 600,000 million euros in cash.