The European Union’s General Court delivered a significant ruling on Wednesday, favoring former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Eva Kaili by annulling the European Parliament’s prior decision to deny her access to documents regarding the suspected misuse of parliamentary assistant allowances.
Kaili, who has been entangled in the ongoing Qatargate corruption investigation, had invoked the EU’s transparency regulation to obtain these documents. However, in July 2023, her request was rejected by the Parliament, which expressed concerns that making the information public could compromise ongoing legal proceedings.
Court’s rationale on document access
The General Court found that the European Parliament had misapplied the EU transparency regulations in its decision to withhold the requested documents. It dismissed the institution’s rationale that releasing the documents would negatively impact a related court case or compromise legal fairness.
“The requested documents … were not drawn up for the purposes of the proceedings … and do not contain internal positions of the Parliament relating to that case file,” the Court stated.
Additionally, the court clarified that the content of the documents Kaili sought was fundamentally different from the specifics of the case against her. It stated, “In those circumstances, access to the requested documents cannot be refused on the ground of the protection of court proceedings.”
Background on Kaili’s legal troubles
Kaili, 46, served as a Greek MEP from 2014 and held the position of Vice President of the European Parliament from January 2022 until December 2022, when she was arrested on preliminary charges of corruption, money laundering, and involvement in a criminal organization as part of the broader Qatargate investigation concerning foreign influence operations in Brussels.
Following her arrest, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) sought to lift her parliamentary immunity, based on findings from the EU’s anti-fraud office (OLAF) regarding “suspicion of fraud detrimental to the EU budget,” linked to alleged irregularities in the payment of assistants’ salaries.
In February 2023, Kaili contested the immunity request, with her lawyer, Spyros Pappas, labeling the prosecutor’s actions as “unjustified.” He claimed that the investigation conducted by OLAF had already concluded and pertained to events from previous years.
The European Parliament unanimously voted to lift Kaili’s immunity in February of last year, allowing the prosecution to proceed as requested by the EPPO/OLAF.