Top EU transport official resigns after accepting free Qatar flights

The European Fee’s transport division chief has resigned from his place over free flights from Qatar, in line with a spokesperson.

Henrik Hololei, the Director-Normal of the Fee’s DG MOVE, was going through an inner investigation after it was revealed that he travelled quite a lot of instances on the expense of the Qatari authorities or organisations near it between 2015 and 2021, regardless of his division being concerned in negotiating an EU-Qatar air transport settlement.

Nonetheless, the transport chief will nonetheless be working on the EU establishment.

“At his request, the Faculty [of Commissioners] has determined to nominate Henrik Hololei, who’s the final director for mobility and transport, to the place of hors-classe advisor within the DG for worldwide partnership from the first of April,” the Fee’s chief spokesperson, Eric Mamer, stated on Wednesday.

Hololei’s choice will come as a reduction to the Fee, which was initially defending his choice to simply accept the free Qatar Airways flights, since all his missions have been authorised and performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines. 

Nonetheless, Hololei himself accepted his personal free flights after finishing up his personal battle of curiosity analyses.

German member of the European Parliament Daniel Freund (Greens), stated in an interview that the Fee’s response just isn’t adequate.

“Is it sufficient of a consequence if he’s simply shifting from one job to a different, mainly protecting the identical wage? I do not assume so,” he advised Euronews.

“So far as I perceive, there may be nonetheless a disciplinary process ongoing, in order that’s now as much as the Fee providers to find out that.

“However I feel it clearly reveals that we can’t have director generals that authorise their very own distinctive free flights or items or no matter. (There needs to be) Impartial oversight and when guidelines are damaged, there must be sanctions, not only a reshuffle the place folks transfer to a different job with the identical pay,” Freund added.

The Fee just isn’t the one EU establishment to be experiencing difficulties involving Qatar.

A corruption scandal within the European Parliament erupted in December final 12 months, during which Qatar allegedly paid massive sums of money to EU lawmakers in return for influencing decision-making.

The European Fee was not implicated within the scandal, however transparency NGOs and campaigners have broadly criticised Brussels’ “weak” ethics guidelines.

The EU’s watchdog has additionally requested the Fee to supply particulars on enterprise journeys made by senior workers members since 2021 that have been partly paid for by third events.