To General Court of European Union decided today, Wednesday in favor of the former MEP Eva Kailiannuling the European Parliament’s decision to prevent access to documents on suspicious abuse of parliamentary benefits to assistants.
Kaili – also basic suspected in the long -term corruption scandal of Qatargate of the EU – had requested the documents under the EU Transparency Regulation, but in July 2023 the parliament rejected its request citing concerns that the revelation would interfere with current legal procedures.
According to the General Court, the European Parliament Incorrectly applied an EU transparency rule to withhold documents and rejected the arguments of the institution that their publication would harm a relevant judicial case or violate the principle of legal justice.
“The requested documents … were not drawn up for the purposes of the procedure … and do not contain parliament’s internal positions on the case file,” the court said.
The court also explained that the subject of the document requested by Kaili is different from the subject of the case against her.
“Under these circumstances, access to the requested documents cannot be rejected for reasons of protection of judicial proceedings,” he said.
It is recalled that Eva Kaili was a Greek MEP from 2014 and Vice President of Parliament from January 2022 to December 2022, when she was arrested on preliminary charges of corruption, money laundering and participation in a criminal organization in the context of the investigation into the investigation into the Qatargate business.
A few days after its arrest, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) called for the removal of its parliamentary immunity, based on an EU fraud (OLAF) report on “suspicion of fraud against the EU budget”, regarding alleged irregularities.
In February 2023, Kaili appealed against the immunity request. Her lawyer, Spyros Pappas, described the prosecutor’s action as “unjustified”, arguing that the investigation had already been completed by OLAF and involved “events dating back to previous years”.
In February last year; The European Parliament unanimously unanimously the immunity of Kaili to allow Eppo/Olaf to continue the prosecution.
Source: Skai
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