European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas assured on Tuesday that he participated in the opening ceremony of the World Cup in Qatar on behalf of the Commission and that he received only a soccer ball, chocolates and souvenirs from this country. sports event, EFE and Agerpres report.

During a press conference in Strasbourg to present various legislative initiatives in the field of security, the Greek commissioner received questions, mainly related to his presence at this ceremony and his favorable messages about Qatar’s labor reforms, published in recent months on social networks, were questioned . in recent days in the context of the corruption scandal in the European Parliament.

“I was at the opening ceremony of the World Cup as a representative of the commission. It was the first global sporting event since the pandemic, and Europe could not miss this event. With all transparency, we held meetings with the heads of European federations, we defended our European model of sport,” vice-president Margaritis Schinas assured.

Schinas claimed that all his public statements regarding Qatar were “100% compatible with Commission policy”, which he reproduced “thoroughly and scrupulously”.

“I have posted and will continue to post on Twitter for transparency. And let me tell you something: it’s a good thing I tweeted. Imagine the criticism I would have received if I hadn’t tweeted. Everything I said, everything I did was in the light of day,” defended the vice-president of the European Commission.

Asked if he had ever received gifts from Qatar, the Greek commissioner said he had been given “a soccer ball, a box of chocolates (which he gave to the driver) and various souvenirs from the World Cup”, all of which had a monetary value. below the level required for the Commission’s declaration.

For his part, Schinas continued, he gave the Qatari authorities the typical protocol gifts of the European executive: a candle and a paperweight.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen demanded on Monday that European institutions be governed according to “high standards of independence and integrity” following an alleged corruption scandal in the European Parliament linked to Qatar. Von der Leyen avoided mentioning Schinas’ visit to Qatar and limited herself to noting that all meetings of commission members are made public in the transparency register.

Margaritis Schinas also expressed his wish that the European Parliament, stunned by the arrest of former vice-president Eva Kylie and several members of her staff involved in the story of the alleged bribe from Qatar, “continues to be a bastion of European democracy, something that all Europeans can be proud of.”

“I wasn’t proud this week. There was outrage and disappointment. And, to be honest, all of this is justified. I am satisfied that the parliament has already taken action against those under investigation and is working hard to restore the lost trust,” Schinas said.

Corruption scandal in the European Parliament

• We remember that in recent days the European Parliament has been rocked by a high-profile corruption scandal after allegations that Qatar offered money and gifts to EP officials to influence their decision-making process.
• At the center of the accusations is the Greek MEP Eva Kaili, the vice-president of the European Parliament, who has been elected to the EP since 2014. She was arrested on Sunday and charged with corruption by Belgian authorities along with three other people.
• He would receive a lot of money from Qatar to influence his colleagues to make decisions beneficial to this country. At the time of her arrest, on Friday, the MEP would have been caught at the scene of the crime, having “bags of money”, so she could not claim parliamentary immunity.