{"id":42484,"date":"2022-12-20T06:37:23","date_gmt":"2022-12-19T19:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=42484"},"modified":"2022-12-20T06:37:23","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T19:37:23","slug":"will-the-fallout-from-qatargate-splatter-the-european-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=42484","title":{"rendered":"Will The Fallout From &#8220;Qatargate&#8221; Splatter The European Commission?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>As the Qatargate scandal widens, questions are being asked as to whether its reverberations will reach the Commission, the EU\u2019s executive branch. Recent revelations suggest the EU\u2019s Chief Diplomat Josep Borrell could be implicated.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Since erupting last weekend with police raids on MEPs\u2019 homes and offices in the European parliament, the Qatargate scandal has done nothing but mushroom. What began as a criminal probe into current and former MEPs and parliamentary assistants implicated in a bribery ring aimed at burnishing the public image of the current World Cup host has widened significantly \u2014 not only in terms of the number of people involved but also the number of organizations and third countries, which now also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lesoir.be\/482910\/article\/2022-12-13\/soupcons-de-corruption-au-parlement-europeen-le-maroc-aussi-dans-le-viseur-de-la\">include Morocco<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As the scandal grows, both the Parliament and the European Commission are locked in a frantic damage control mission. European Parliament president Roberta Metsola on Thursday (15 December)\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/euobserver.com\/eu-political\/156544?utm_source=euobs&amp;utm_medium=email\">pledged<\/a>\u00a0to unveil a \u201cwide-ranging reform package\u201d in January, which will include\u00a0 measures to bolster whistleblower protections, a ban on all unofficial parliamentary friendship groups (groups of MEPs discussing relations with non-EU countries) and a review of enforcement of code of conduct rules for MEPs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/Finish reading: https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/will-fallout-qatargate-splatter-european-commission\">http:\/\/Finish reading: https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/will-fallout-qatargate-splatter-european-commission<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the Qatargate scandal widens, questions are being asked as to whether its reverberations will reach the Commission, the EU\u2019s executive branch. Recent revelations suggest the EU\u2019s Chief Diplomat Josep Borrell could be implicated. Since erupting last weekend with police raids on MEPs\u2019 homes and offices in the European parliament, the Qatargate scandal has done &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=42484\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Will The Fallout From &#8220;Qatargate&#8221; Splatter The European Commission?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42485,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42484\/revisions\/42485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}