Eva Kaili and Katharina Barley know each other well from their joint work in the EU Parliament. The German EU Parliament Vice President is now talking about how the joint cooperation with the Greek was and where they clashed hard.
The Vice President of the EU Parliament, Eva Kaili, who has since been deposed, is in custody. The EU Parliament continues to deal with the processing. Colleague Katharina Barley (SPD), also Vice-President, explains in an interview with “n-tv” why nobody found the Greek’s behavior strange when, for example, in November she described the controversial World Cup host country Qatar as a pioneer for human rights.
“But you have to know about Eva Kaili that she has always been the oddball in the group,” Barley justifies herself and goes on to explain, “she has often shown voting behavior that was incomprehensible to us. For example, in the wiretapping affair in Greece, she sided with the conservative government and not with that of her party leader, who himself was a victim of this affair.”
Nobody could have imagined that she would be sitting on bags of money at home, the 54-year-old continues.
In the cooperation between the two vice-presidents, there were “hard arguments”. “In many places she took a completely different line than I did. For example when she voted for the Conservative candidate in the election of the Secretary-General of Parliament, although I had expressed serious doubts about the procedure,” reveals Barley.
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The investigations into Kaili were initiated by the Belgian judiciary, which is why criticism of the European Parliament is high. Member of Parliament for the Greens, Daniel Freund, sees weaknesses in the transparency regulations. However, Katharina Barley believes that stricter rules could not have prevented the scandal. Because Kaili openly showed her connections to those responsible in Qatar on social media.
“First we have to clarify this case quickly, completely and consistently. And then we have to do everything we can to close loopholes,” says the MEP. Parliament has already got the ball rolling here. On the one hand, there would be a resolution in Parliament stating that third countries should also be included in the transparency register, as Barley explains. In addition, the protection of whistleblowers should be increased and an ethics committee set up that works more independently.
