Qatar should not be dragged into European Parliament corruption scandal, Qatari foreign minister tells CNBC
Qatar’s foreign minister said his country should not be dragged into a corruption scandal under investigation by the European Parliament and dismissed as “baseless” accusations of meddling by Doha.
The scandalthe biggest to rock the EU in decades, concerns allegations that Qatar and Morocco bribed politicians, parliamentary aides and non-governmental organizations to influence decisions in the EU parliament.
“As the State of Qatar, we are 100% sure that this reasoning is baseless. We saw nothing (from the Belgian authorities). There is an ongoing investigation. We have to see; we have to wait until the investigation is over,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani told CNBC this week.
“This problem is a problem that happens in Europe, in a European institution. It is better for them to look at their own institution and take all the steps required of them and not drag the name of our country into such a situation,” he added.
Qatar has denied any involvement. Morocco protested “judicial harassment” over a corruption probe in which the European Parliament on Monday began a month-long process to lift the immunity of two MEPs.
Sheikh Mohammed said the Gulf Arab state, which is one of the world’s biggest gas exporters, was “disappointed” and disagreed with last month’s vote in the European Parliament to suspend any legislation involving the Qatar and the ban on access of Qatari representatives to its offices.
“Engagement with the European Union and the institutions of the European Union continues on geopolitical issues, on energy issues, on many other issues, and these kinds of decisions … will affect the debate,” he said.
He stressed that Qatar, a major producer of liquefied natural gas, would not politicize energy supplies to Europe based on trade agreements with state-owned QatarEnergy.
“According to our history, we have never missed any mission, we have never politicized our action or weaponized our action to threaten any other country,” the minister stressed.
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