Schinas says Qatar comments reflected Commission position
EU Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas has said his recent remarks in Qatar fully reflected the Commission’s position, rejecting any suggestion that he is linked to the Qatar corruption scandal that has engulfed the European Parliament.
Speaking to reporters in Strasbourg, where the European Parliament was meeting, he said he attended the opening ceremony of the World Cup in Qatar as a Commission representative.
“Let me be very clear and very simple because I think this is the moment to be clear and simple,” Schinas said. “Across the year, all my public statements on Qatar are fully, 100 percent compatible with the position of the Commission.”
“We are not improvising here,” he said, adding that his comments on Qatar also reflected positions taken by the International Labor Organization.
Everything he said and did was done transparently and he had tweeted about all his meetings in Qatar.
“Thank God I tweeted. You can imagine what type of criticism I would have gotten if I hadn’t tweeted everything I did, everything I said, in the light of day.”
“For me after 32 years of public service, there is only light,” said Schinas, who holds the Commission portfolio of “promoting our European Way of Life.”
He admitted he had received gifts while in Qatar – a soccer ball and a box of chocolates – but he said he gave them to the driver who took him from the stadium to his hotel.
