The plenary of the European Parliament will vote this noon on the dismissal as vice-president of the chamber of the Greek Socialist Eva Kaili, arrested in Belgium for her alleged involvement in a corruption scheme involving the payment of bribes by Qatar to gain influence in political and economic decision-making in the European institution.
This was announced by the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, in an extraordinary intervention during the plenary session being held in Strasbourg (France) to inform MEPs of the activation of the process to remove Kaili from the post of Vice-President.
According to the rules of the European Parliament, the removal of any of its fourteen vice-presidents must be carried out following a two-stage process, as set out in Article 21 of the institution’s rules of procedure.
The first step has been fulfilled early Tuesday morning by the group leaders of all the groups represented in the European Parliament by agreeing «unanimously» at an extraordinary meeting of the Conference of Presidents to ask the House to dismiss the Greek Socialist Vice-President.
The vote will take place at noon and for it to go ahead it must have the majority support of two thirds of the votes cast at the session. Metsola already decided over the weekend to immediately suspend all powers, duties and functions of representation as president, but could not proceed to his dismissal because this is a power that belongs exclusively to the plenary of the European Parliament.
However, this decision does not prevent Kaili from continuing to occupy her seat as an MEP despite being detained, pending her appearance in court on Wednesday. The parliamentary immunity that protects MEPs, however, did not prevent her arrest over the weekend because such protection is suspended if the authorities act in the face of a «flagrant crime».
Since last Friday, the Belgian police have carried out about twenty searches, mainly in offices at the European Parliament headquarters in Brussels but also in the homes of several MEPs. In Kaili’s home, the authorities seized about 600,000 million euros in cash.
