Politico: How lobbying and politics became a family affair for the Kaili sisters

Eva Kaili’s relationship with her sister Maddalena is put under the microscope by politico with its publication, in which it analyzes how the rise of the MEP to the European Parliament coincided with the rise of the multi-purpose NGO that her sister had created.

Unraveling the thread of lobbying in Brussels, the publication characteristically mentions that “while Eva Kaili was building a career in the Parliament, Madalena Kaili was creating a multi-purpose company – the Made Group – whose goals overlapped with the MEP’s career. As Eva Kaili rose in politics, the Made Group’s wings spread.”

Politico’s report in detail:

“The Made group of Matnalena

Madalena Kaili founded a multipurpose organization Made Group, whose work often coincides with her sister’s career. And following parallel lives, as Kaili’s political career was climbing, the Made Group was also coming to the fore.

The most typical example of how Eva Kaili’s activity intersects with her sister’s Made Group is in science and technology. While Eva Kaili was focusing her attention in the European Parliament on issues such as artificial intelligence and blockchain (cryptocurrencies), Madalena Kaili’s Made Group created a “non-profit initiative” called ELONtech in 2018, which also focused on in these areas.

Eva Kaili’s efforts as the European Parliament’s blockchain cheerleader will culminate in the successful presentation of a resolution on blockchain technology in October 2018. The European Parliament’s committee on the future of science and technology (STOA), whose then chaired by Eva Kaili, inaugurated the Artificial Intelligence Center in December 2019.

ELONtech has been a useful ally for such purposes, with the two Kaili sisters fully involved, as well as Eva Kaili’s MEP staff. Madalena Kaili acted as CEO of ELONtech and Eva Kaili was a consultant.

In 2020, Eva Kaili launched an international advisory committee for STOA, which happens to be the European Parliament’s advisory body on EU innovation priorities. The board included a representative from ELONTech and one from the Qatar Foundation, the emirate’s deep-pocketed development agency for education, science and culture.

Its parent organization Made Group has not published its accounts, but according to EU figures it has received large amounts of EU funding for its projects, which Eva Kaili has offered support for, Politico reports.

ELONtech and the names

The ELONtech website went down at the end of last week. At the time of writing it is back online, but with the names of all its employees removed.

Asked by Politico why the names of executives and consultants had been removed from ELONtech’s website, Maddalena Kaili said this was done to preserve the “discretion” of the organization’s consultants and volunteers. Asked why she also redacted her name, she said it was “no secret” that she ran ELONtech.

When Eva Kaili was arrested as part of a Belgian investigation into corruption, money laundering and organized crime, Madalena Kaili – whose assets have been frozen – said she could not believe the accusations given her sister’s “morality and personality” .

The two sisters are close and have often cheered each other on on social media and embarked on epic shopping sprees in Athens. During Eva Kaili’s election campaign for the European Parliament in 2014, Madalena Kaili coined the hashtag “#keep_calm & #vote_sister”.

Over the past five years, the two sisters have often been seen together at tech events and participated in each other’s projects. Lobby group Industry Commons, of which Maddalena Kaili is on the board, described her as “chief policy adviser and close associate in the office of her sister, Greek MEP Eva Kaili”, although this is not confirmed on her parliamentary profile page by Eva Kaili. The description was removed from the Industry Commons website last week.

Maddalena Kaili said she was working for her sister “as an assistant based in Athens” and was registered in Greece under a special contract which she said was “allowed for MEPs”. Madalena Kaili also declared ignorance of the fact that her name is not included, and never was, in the list of Eva Kaili’s advisers on the European Parliament’s website.

At the same time, in August 2017 Maddalena Kaili founded Made Group, a “non-profit platform for communication strategy, social innovation projects and creative synergies” based in Athens.

As of 2021, Maddalena Kaili was listed as the company’s sole manager and co-founder along with M.K., according to documents filed with the Athens Chamber of Commerce. M.K. also listed as Eva Kaili’s assistant in February 2020.

In November 2022, M.K. became the manager of Estate Aria Properties, a real estate business founded by Eva Kaili and her partner, Francesco Giorgi.

Maddalena and the European programs

During the years following its launch in 2017, Made Group would participate in various digital projects supported by Horizon 2020, the EU’s European innovation and research program – most notably in the international consortium that developed ChildRescue, an app to find missing immigrant children. Maddalena Kaili’s organization was responsible for communication, receiving €104,037.50 in EU funding between 2018 and 2020. Other such programs followed.

Madalena Kaili claimed that there was no identification of the work of Eva Kaili with those of the Made Group. “We had activities that did not explicitly follow Eva’s agenda,” he said, noting in a press release that Made Group “participated in various projects, programs, studies and events in collaboration, where appropriate, with a broad group of non-permanent partners and volunteers ». The press release also emphasizes that ELONtech “is not a legal entity (not a company) and certainly not an NGO and has not received a single euro of funding”.

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