Recently, the European Commission announced that it had launched an investigation into the travels of Henrik Hololei, a prominent EU transport official. Several European Commission officials have told Politico that they believe Hololei should resign pending the investigation.
Hololei has been criticized for flying Qatar in business class at the expense of the Qatari government on multiple occasions. Recently, Politico reported that Hololei determined that accepting free airline tickets from the Qatari government did not constitute a conflict of interest. The Commission revealed last week that it was investigating Hololei’s trips to Qatar.
The European Commission’s Director-General for Mobility and Transport, Henrik Hololei, is under increasing pressure from his colleagues, who believe he should resign due to his activities, Politico reports.
Commission officials are also concerned that the Commission is moving too slowly on the case.
The Commission has changed the rules to ensure senior Commission officials can no longer assess their own conflicts of interest and has launched an internal investigation to find out if Hololei violated travel rules for EU officials.
The controversy over Hololei’s travel and his continued tenure come at a sensitive time for the European Union. Belgian police revealed in December last year that one of the European Parliament’s vice-presidents, Eva Kaili, had received money from Qatar.
Source : News