The European Parliament paralyzes negotiations to exempt Qatar from visas after the scandal of alleged bribery

The process to dismiss the EP vice president accused of accepting bribes, the Greek socialist Eva Kaili, begins

BRUSELAS, 12 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, has announced this Monday that the European parliamentary position that defends the exemption of visas for tourists from Qatar will return to the competent commission for its review, so negotiations will not begin as planned with the Twenty-seven to agree on this measure, after a vice president of the institution, the Greek socialist Eva Kaili, was accused of receiving alleged bribes from this Gulf country.

"I had planned to announce the petition to start negotiations for the exemption of visas with Qatar and Kuwait, but in light of the information this report must go back to the parliamentary committee," Metsola explained at the beginning of the plenary session of the Parliamentary Chamber in Strasbourg (France), after a few days that the parliamentary president herself has considered "the longest" of her life.

The measure has been agreed upon with all the political groups, Metsola said, and submitted to a plenary vote, which has supported the decision to return the report to the Civil Liberties, Justice and Interior (LIBE) commission for study.

The rapporteur of the report that gave the green light to defend the exemption of short-stay visas for travelers from Qatar, the German MEP from The Greens Erik Marquardt, has warned that the European Parliament "cannot allow a State that is attacking our Union obtain the liberalization of visas".

"We have to make sure that this process has not been manipulated and also refuse to start negotiations," defended the MEP before endorsing the return of the report to the MEP commission.

The initiative to exempt Qatar and Kuwait from the requirement of visas for trips of a maximum of 90 days stems from a proposal by the European Commission presented last April, in which community services defended the "economic advantages" for the European Union to relax travel requirements for the citizens of Qatar and Kuwait and that this gesture "will contribute to strengthening relations" with these countries.

In addition, Metsola has reported that the Conference of Presidents, which brings together the heads of all the political groups in the EP, will meet early on Tuesday to start the procedure to remove the Greek socialist Eva Kaili, who has been indicted by the Belgian authorities for alleged corruption.

The final decision corresponds to the plenary of the European Parliament, which is the one who approves the distribution of posts in the institution, so the Conference of Presidents must decide whether to transfer the petition so that it can be submitted to a vote in plenary session.

Already over the weekend, the president of the European Parliament decided to strip her of her functions and representation tasks as vice president, which in her case included relations with the Middle East, for example, but the power to strip her of the position corresponds to the plenary.