“Qatargate” has caused shockwaves across Europe, and for now, several prominent members of the European socialist group have been involved mostly Italians. But there is one Italian who could gain something out of this: Luigi Di Maio.
Di Maio is a candidate for the position of EU Special Representative for relations with the Gulf countries, including Qatar. He has nothing to do with the scandal, but one of his competitors does.
Dimitris Avramopoulos, former European Commissioner for Home Affairs and one of the four candidates evaluated by the European External Action Service.
Di Maio ranked the best, but not without critical comments coming mainly from his own country. Many in Rome complained that his CV lacked the basics for such a high-profile position.
The criticism came to the attention of EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Joseph Borrell, who reportedly temporarily froze the nomination.
However, the bribery scandal that broke out in Brussels has re-shuffled the cards on the table.
Avramopoulos, in fact, is on the board of ‘Fight Impunity’, the NGO of former MEP Antonio Panzeri (S&D), reportedly involved in the scandal at the highest levels.
Panzeri is currently under investigation for corruption, accused of accepting bribes from Qatar to favour a softer EU approach towards the country now hosting the World Cup.
The former Greek commissioner is close to the current Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, and both are members of the European People’s Party (EPP). After the criticism of Di Maio, the EPP allegedly advocated the name of Avramopoulos against Di Maio.
Antonio Tajani said on the sidelines of the EU Council on Monday that Luigi Di Maio “is not the Italian candidate” and clarified: “It is a personal candidacy of Di Maio, Josep Borrell will decide, it is not up to the (Italian) government”.
In early December, Tajani told La Repubblica that Giorgia Meloni’s government would not oppose Di Maio’s nomination.
For his part, Avramopoulos said he had nothing to do with the scandal, and he immediately resigned from the NGO.
“I was invited to participate in early 2020 as a member of the organisation’s honorary advisory board, together with leading international figures such as the former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the Commission Federica Mogherini,” he said in a statement.
He added that after a year, he stopped participating in the committee.
“The committee had no executive or management authority. Before accepting the invitation to participate, as a former Commissioner, I requested approval from the European Commission, which I received […] Together with all the members, we resigned as soon as it became known that an investigation had been launched for Mr Panzeri last Friday night. This is the only truth”, he noted.
Rumours suggest that following “Qatar-gate”, the EPP is taking its distance from Avramopoulos’ candidacy.
An EU source told ANSA that the appointment is ‘totally unrelated’ to the Belgian investigation into alleged corruption against MEPs.
“Even if this very serious hypothesis were confirmed, the envoy would have to liaise with the whole region, not just with one country,” said a senior EU official, adding that the appointment should, in any case, take place by the end of the year.
(Federica Pascale | EURACTIV.it – Edited by Sarantis Michalopoulos)
Source: euractiv.com
