New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the Indian Space Policy, 2023 under which roles and responsibilities of organisations such as ISRO, NewSpace India Limited and private sector entities have been laid down.
The government had earlier opened up the space sector for the private sector to help boost the development of the segment.
“In brief, it will offer clarity in the role of the components set up (in the recent past),” Union Minister Jitendra Singh told reporters here.
He said the policy would aim to enhance the role of the Department of Space, boost activities of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) missions and give a larger participation of research, academia, startups and industry.
ABOARD COTAM UNITÉ (FRANCE’S AIR FORCE ONE) — Europe must reduce its dependency on the United States and avoid getting dragged into a confrontation between China and the U.S. over Taiwan, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview on his plane back from a three-day state visit to China.
Speaking with POLITICO and two French journalists after spending around six hours with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his trip, Macron emphasized his pet theory of “strategic autonomy” for Europe, presumably led by France, to become a “third superpower.”
He said “the great risk” Europe faces is that it “gets caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy,” while flying from Beijing to Guangzhou, in southern China, aboard COTAM Unité, France’s Air Force One.
Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party have enthusiastically endorsed Macron’s concept of strategic autonomy and Chinese officials constantly refer to it in their dealings with European countries. Party leaders and theorists in Beijing are convinced the West is in decline and China is on the ascendant and that weakening the transatlantic relationship will help accelerate this trend.
“The paradox would be that, overcome with panic, we believe we are just America’s followers,” Macron said in the interview. “The question Europeans need to answer … is it in our interest to accelerate [a crisis] on Taiwan? No. The worse thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the U.S. agenda and a Chinese overreaction,” he said.
Just hours after his flight left Guangzhou headed back to Paris, China launched large military exercises around the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which China claims as its territory but the U.S. has promised to arm and defend.
Those exercises were a response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen’s 10-day diplomatic tour of Central American countries that included a meeting with Republican U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy while she transited in California. People familiar with Macron’s thinking said he was happy Beijing had at least waited until he was out of Chinese airspace before launching the simulated “Taiwan encirclement” exercise.
Beijing has repeatedly threatened to invade in recent years and has a policy of isolating the democratic island by forcing other countries to recognize it as part of “one China.”
Taiwan talks
Macron and Xi discussed Taiwan “intensely,” according to French officials accompanying the president, who appears to have taken a more conciliatory approach than the U.S. or even the European Union.
“Stability in the Taiwan Strait is of paramount importance,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who accompanied Macron for part of his visit, said she told Xi during their meeting in Beijing last Thursday. “The threat [of] the use of force to change the status quo is unacceptable.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron in Guangdong on April 7, 2023 | Pool Photo by Jacques Witt / AFP via Getty Images
Xi responded by saying anyone who thought they could influence Beijing on Taiwan was deluded.
Macron appears to agree with that assessment.
“Europeans cannot resolve the crisis in Ukraine; how can we credibly say on Taiwan, ‘watch out, if you do something wrong we will be there’? If you really want to increase tensions that’s the way to do it,” he said.
“Europe is more willing to accept a world in which China becomes a regional hegemon,” said Yanmei Xie, a geopolitics analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics. “Some of its leaders even believe such a world order may be more advantageous to Europe.”
In his trilateral meeting with Macron and von der Leyen last Thursday in Beijing, Xi Jinping went off script on only two topics — Ukraine and Taiwan — according to someone who was present in the room.
“Xi was visibly annoyed for being held responsible for the Ukraine conflict and he downplayed his recent visit to Moscow,” this person said. “He was clearly enraged by the U.S. and very upset over Taiwan, by the Taiwanese president’s transit through the U.S. and [the fact that] foreign policy issues were being raised by Europeans.”
In this meeting, Macron and von der Leyen took similar lines on Taiwan, this person said. But Macron subsequently spent more than four hours with the Chinese leader, much of it with only translators present, and his tone was far more conciliatory than von der Leyen’s when speaking with journalists.
‘Vassals’ warning
Macron also argued that Europe had increased its dependency on the U.S. for weapons and energy and must now focus on boosting European defense industries.
He also suggested Europe should reduce its dependence on the “extraterritoriality of the U.S. dollar,” a key policy objective of both Moscow and Beijing.
Macron has long been a proponent of strategic autonomy for Europe | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
“If the tensions between the two superpowers heat up … we won’t have the time nor the resources to finance our strategic autonomy and we will become vassals,” he said.
Russia, China, Iran and other countries have been hit by U.S. sanctions in recent years that are based on denying access to the dominant dollar-denominated global financial system. Some in Europe have complained about “weaponization” of the dollar by Washington, which forces European companies to give up business and cut ties with third countries or face crippling secondary sanctions.
While sitting in the stateroom of his A330 aircraft in a hoodie with the words “French Tech” emblazoned on the chest, Macron claimed to have already “won the ideological battle on strategic autonomy” for Europe.
He did not address the question of ongoing U.S. security guarantees for the Continent, which relies heavily on American defense assistance amid the first major land war in Europe since World War II.
As one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and the only nuclear power in the EU, France is in a unique position militarily. However, the country has contributed far less to the defense of Ukraine against Russia’s invasion than many other countries.
As is common in France and many other European countries, the French President’s office, known as the Elysée Palace, insisted on checking and “proofreading” all the president’s quotes to be published in this article as a condition of granting the interview. This violates POLITICO’s editorial standards and policy, but we agreed to the terms in order to speak directly with the French president. POLITICO insisted that it cannot deceive its readers and would not publish anything the president did not say. The quotes in this article were all actually said by the president, but some parts of the interview in which the president spoke even more frankly about Taiwan and Europe’s strategic autonomy were cut out by the Elysée.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Chinese leader Xi Jinping had one overriding message for his visiting French counterpart Emmanuel Macron this week: Don’t let Europe get sucked into playing America’s game.
Beijing is eager to avoid the EU falling further under U.S. influence, at a time when the White House is pursuing a more assertive policy to counter China’s geopolitical and military strength.
Russia’s yearlong war against Ukraine has strengthened the alliance between Europe and the U.S., shaken up global trade, reinvigorated NATO and forced governments to look at what else could suddenly go wrong in world affairs. That’s not welcome in Beijing, which still views Washington as its strategic nemesis.
This week, China’s counter-offensive stepped up a gear, turning on the charm. Xi welcomed Macron into the grandest of settings at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, along with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. This was in sharp contrast to China’s current efforts to keep senior American officials at arm’s length, especially since U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called off a trip to Beijing during the spy balloon drama earlier this year.
Both American and Chinese officials know Europe’s policy toward Beijing is far from settled. That’s an opportunity, and a risk for both sides. In recent months, U.S. officials have warned of China’s willingness to send weapons to Russia and talked up the dangers of allowing Chinese tech companies unfettered access to European markets, with some success.
TikTok, which is ultimately Chinese owned, has been banned from government and administrative phones in a number of locations in Europe, including in the EU institutions in Brussels. American pressure also led the Dutch to put new export controls on sales of advanced semiconductor equipment to China.
Yet even the hawkish von der Leyen, a former German defense minister, has dismissed the notion of decoupling Europe from China’s economy altogether. From Beijing’s perspective, this is yet another significant difference from the hostile commercial environment being promoted by the U.S.
Just this week, 36 Chinese and French businesses signed new deals in front of Macron and Xi, in what Chinese state media said was a sign of “the not declining confidence in the Chinese market of European businesses.” While hardly a statement brimming with confidence, it could have been worse.
For the last couple of years European leaders have grown more skeptical of China’s trajectory, voicing dismay at Beijing’s way of handling the coronavirus pandemic, the treatment of protesters in Hong Kong and Xinjiang’s Uyghur Muslims, as well as China’s sanctions on European politicians and military threats against Taiwan.
Then, Xi and Vladimir Putin hailed a “no limits” partnership just days before Russia invaded Ukraine. While the West rolled out tough sanctions on Moscow, China became the last major economy still interested in maintaining — and expanding — trade ties with Russia. That shocked many Western officials and provoked a fierce debate in Europe over how to punish Beijing and how far to pull out of Chinese commerce.
Beijing saw Macron as the natural partner to help avoid a nosedive in EU-China relations, especially since Angela Merkel — its previous favorite — was no longer German chancellor.
Macron’s willingness to engage with anyone — including his much-criticized contacts with Putin ahead of his war on Ukraine — made him especially appealing as Beijing sought to drive a wedge between European and American strategies on China.
Xi Jinping sees Macron as the natural to Angela Merkel, his previous partner in the West who helped avoid a nosedive in EU-China relations | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
Not taking sides
“I’m very glad we share many identical or similar views on Sino-French, Sino-EU, international and regional issues,” Xi told Macron over tea on Friday, in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou, according to Chinese state media Xinhua.
Strategic autonomy, a French foreign policy focus, is a favorite for China, which sees the notion as proof of Europe’s distance from the U.S. For his part, Macron told Xi a day earlier that France promotes “European strategic autonomy,” doesn’t like “bloc confrontation” and believes in doing its own thing. “France does not pick sides,” he said.
The French position is challenged by some in Europe who see it as an urgent task to take a tougher approach toward Beijing.
“Macron could have easily avoided the dismal picture of European and transatlantic disunity,” said Thorsten Benner, director of the Berlin-based Global Public Policy Institute. “Nobody forced Macron to show up with a huge business delegation, repeating disproven illusions of reciprocity and deluding himself about working his personal magic on Xi to get the Chinese leader to turn against Putin.”
Holger Hestermeyer, a professor of EU law at King’s College London, said Beijing will struggle to split the transatlantic alliance.
“If China wants to succeed with building a new world order, separating the EU from the U.S. — even a little bit — would be a prized goal — and mind you, probably an elusive one,” Hestermeyer said. “Right now the EU is strengthening its defenses specifically because China tried to play divide and conquer with the EU in the past.”
Xi’s focus on America was unmistakable when he veered into a topic that was a long way from Europe’s top priority, during his three-way meeting with Macron and von der Leyen. A week earlier the Biden administration had held its second Summit for Democracy, in which Russia and China were portrayed as the main threats.
“Spreading the so-called ‘democracy versus authoritarianism’ [narrative],” Xi told his European guests on Thursday, “would only bring division and confrontation to the world.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday extended former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s judicial custody until April 17 in connection with the now-scrapped excise policy case being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
CBI Judge M.K. Nagpal of the Rouse Avenue Courts ordered the AAP leader to be produced before the court on April 17.
The central probe agency had sought the extension of Sisodia’s custody as the investigation is at a crucial stage.
On March 31, the court had dismissed former Deputy Chief Minister’s bail plea.
While denying him bail, Judge Nagpal had said that Sisodia can, prima facie, be held to be the “architect of the criminal conspiracy”.
He observed that the payment of advance kickbacks of around Rs 90-100 crore was meant for him and his other colleagues in the AAP government.
“The payment of advance kickbacks of around Rs 90-100 crore was meant for him and his other colleagues in the GNCTD and Rs 20-30 crore out of the above are found to have been routed through the co-accused Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally and approver Dinesh Arora and in turn, certain provisions of the excise policy were permitted to be tweaked and manipulated by the applicant to protect and preserve the interests of South liquor lobby and to ensure repayment of the kickbacks to the said lobby,” the court held.
The court is not inclined to release Sisodia on bail at this stage of investigation as his release may adversely affect the ongoing investigation and will also seriously hamper the progress, the order stated.
It said that the evidence collected by the probe agency so far shows that the applicant through the co-accused Vijay Nair was in contact with the ‘South lobby’ and formulation of a favourable policy for them was being ensured at every cost and a cartel was permitted to be formed to achieve monopoly in sale of certain liquor brands of favoured manufacturers and it was permitted to be done against very objectives of the policy.
“Thus, as per allegations made by prosecution and the evidence collected in support thereof so far, the applicant can prima facie be held to be architect of the said criminal conspiracy,” the court said.
It held that the allegations made against Sisodia are “serious in nature” and he does not deserve to be released on bail as he was arrested in the CBI case only on February 26 and that the investigation qua his role has still not been completed.
Mere filing of a charge sheet against seven other co-accused in the matter does not matter much in a case like this where deep rooted conspiracy for commission of some economic offences effecting the people at large is alleged to have been committed, the court observed.
It said that the evidence collected so far by the CBI not only shows Sisodia’s active participation in the criminal conspiracy, but also the prima facie commission of some substantive offences of the PC Act by him.
“There is also nothing apparent on record to infer or show that arrest of the applicant in this case was illegal or violative of any directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court or the Hon’ble High Courts and rather, the material placed before this court by the CBI justifies the arrest of applicant in the case,” the court said.
During the last hearing, one of Sisodia’s counsel had said that nothing exceptional was stated by the CBI which would warrant continued custody.
“Nothing on record to show that Sisodia will be threatening the witnesses,” the counsel said, arguing that Sisodia has cooperated with the CBI investigation and none of the searches have revealed any incriminating material against him.
Hyderabad: Telangana Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) minister KT Rama Rao on Sunday said that with the launch of the Telangana ‘Cool Roof Policy 2023 to 2028’, the state will be the first to launch the policy aimed at the reduction of the urban heat island impact.
Taking to Twitter, KTR said that the policy will be launched on Monday. “Telangana will be the only state to come out with such a policy aimed at reducing the urban heat island impact & heat stress and in the process save on CO2 emissions & save energy,” he tweeted.
The vision of the policy is to make Telangana a “thermally comfortable and a heat resilient state”, said KTR. The images shared by the minister read that the policy will help save 600 million units (Gwh) per year after 5 years with 300 square kilometres.
Through the policy the Telangana government is set to ensure faster adoption of cool roofs in the state, develop an ecosystem of suppliers, trained man power, testing and materials to support implementation of cool roofs, KTR added.
The state also aims to ensure access of cool surfaces to all with an effective monitoring and installation process.
Will be launching “Telangana Cool Roof Policy 2023-28” tomorrow
With this, Telangana will be the only state to come out with such a policy aimed at reducing the urban heat island impact & heat stress and in the process save on CO2 emissions & save energy pic.twitter.com/WbvzlYYce2
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday slammed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the excise policy case and said that former deputy CM Manish Sisodia was the “mastermind of the alleged scam”.
Addressing a press conference here, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said, “Why did the court refuse to give relief to Manish Sisodia, the accused in the liquor scam? Manish Sisodia and company have received a bribe of Rs 100 crore and this has been verified through the court.”
“The court said that while reviewing the evidence presented, it can be said that Manish Sisodia is not honest but the mastermind of this corruption policy,” Poonawalla added.
On Friday, a Delhi court, while dismissing the bail plea of Sisodia in the excise policy case lodged by the CBI, said prima facie the AAP leader “is the architect of the criminal conspiracy in the matter”.
Special Judge M.K. Nagpal said Sisodia’s release may adversely impact the ongoing investigation and “seriously hamper” its progress.
LONDON — As the U.K. prepares to overhaul its competition regime, a fierce lobbying battle has broken out between the world’s largest tech companies and their challengers.
Ministers are gearing up to publish new competition legislation in late-April, giving regulators more power to stop a handful of companies dominating digital markets.
But concern over the U.S. tech giants’ influence in Westminster has prompted ministers close to the bill to warn that the new legislation could be watered down.
Two ministers have expressed concerns that Big Tech firms are seeking to weaken the process for appealing decisions made by the country’s beefed-up competition regulator, according to multiple people who were either present at those discussions or whose organizations were represented there. They requested anonymity to discuss private meetings.
One MP said a minister had also approached them to raise concerns, while at an industry roundtable, two ministers spoke of worry about Big Tech firms trying to influence the appeal mechanism.
An industry representative said: “There has been a sh*t load of lobbying from Big Tech, but I don’t know if they’ll succeed.”
Appealing to who?
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill will give new powers to a branch of the Competition and Markets Authority called the Digital Markets Unit (DMU). Under the plan, the DMU will be able fine a company 10 percent of their annual turnover for breaching a code of conduct.
The code, which has not yet been published, would be designed to ensure that a company with ‘strategic market status’ cannot “unfairly use its market power and strategic position to distort or undermine competition between users of the … firm’s services,” the government has said.
Jonathan Jones, senior consultant in public law at Linklaters and formerly the head of the U.K. government’s legal department, wrote that the plan would have “very significant consequences” for Big Tech firms and could force them to “significantly alter” their business models.
One of Big Tech’s concerns is that the bill will only allow companies to appeal decisions made by the DMU on whether or not the right process was followed, known as the judicial review standard, rather than the content or merit of the decision. That puts it in line with other regulators and should mean the process is faster, but it also makes it harder to appeal decisions.
Big Tech firms want to be able to appeal on the “merit”, arguing it is unfair that they can’t challenge whether a DMU decision was correct or not. They also argue it won’t necessarily be slower than the judicial review standard.
One of the biggest fears from medium-sized firms is that the biggest tech companies will use strategies to lengthen the appeals process or even get the entire bill delayed | iStock
Tech Minister Paul Scully, who has responsibility for the bill, told POLITICO: “We want to make sure that the legislation is flexible, proportionate and fair to both big and challenger companies. Any remediation needs to be in place quickly as digital markets move quickly.”
One representative of a mid-sized tech firm said: “This is the fundamental point of contention and it will influence whether the bill works for SMEs and challengers against Big Tech.
“The fear is that big companies with big lawyers understand how to eke things out (during the appeals process) so that they’ll keep their market advantage for years. We’ve heard ministers express these concerns too.”
Consumer group Which? is also urging the government to stay with its proposed appeal system. “For the DMU to work effectively, the government must stick to its guns and ensure that the decisions it reaches are not tied up in an elongated appeals process,” said director of policy, Rocio Concha.
‘Investigator and executioner’
But Jones argued that the bill will make the DMU too powerful.
“The DMU will have power to decide who it is going to regulate, set the rules that apply to them, and then enforce those rules,” he wrote. “This makes the DMU effectively legislator, investigator and executioner.”
On the appeal method, Jones argued that it is an “oversimplification” to think that the government’s proposed standard of appeal would be quicker than one based on merits.
Ben Greenstone, managing director of tech policy consultancy Taso Advisory, said: “I can understand the argument from both sides. The largest tech companies are incentivized to push back against this, but my guess is the government will keep the appeals process as it is, because it keeps it in line with the wider competition regime.”
However, he added the bill would work better if some sort of compromise can be found with the biggest tech companies.
The international playbook
One of the biggest fears from medium-sized firms is that the biggest tech companies will use strategies already tried and tested abroad to lengthen the appeals process or even get the entire bill delayed.
In the U.S., the Open App Markets Act has failed to pass following huge spends on lobbying.
Rick VanMeter, executive director of the Coalition for App Fairness, which is based in the U.S. but has U.K. members, said: “In the U.S. we’ve learned that these mobile app gatekeepers’ will stop at nothing to preserve the status quo and squash their competition.
“To be successful, policymakers around the world must see through these gatekeepers’ efforts for what they are: self-serving attempts to retain their market power.”
Google and Microsoft declined to comment. Apple did not respond.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
London: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been facing the heat after it emerged that his wife Akshata Murthy has shares in a childcare agency, which stands to gain from a new policy announced in the recent budget.
Koru Kids, which lists the PM’s billionaire wife as a shareholder, is likely to benefit from a scheme announced by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, which offers 1,200 pounds to individuals who train to become child-minders through an agency, The Guardian reported.
Appearing before the liaison committee this week, Sunak did not mention his wife’s interest when speaking about the childcare changes.
“No, all my disclosures are declared in the normal way,” he told Labour MP Catherine McKinnell when she asked him whether he had anything to declare.
The public register of ministerial interests, which was last updated in June 2022, only mentions that Akshata owns Catamaran Ventures UK Ltd, a venture capital investment company.
Wendy Chamberlain, the Liberal Democrat chief whip, wrote to Sir Laurie Magnus, the independent adviser on ministerial interests, highlighting the provision in the code that requires ministers to avoid conflicts between their public duties and private interests.
“The Prime Minister’s family does appear to have a relevant financial interest in Koru Kids – which has benefited from a recent change to government policy. There is a clear question as to whether articles 7.1 and 7.7 of the ministerial code have been breached,” The Guardian quoted Chamberlain as saying.
“Rishi Sunak must explain why he failed to come clean when asked about the shares his family held in a company now set to financially benefit from a childcare policy announced in his budget,” Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said.
Sunak’s spokeswoman said: “He has followed the process in terms of declaring his interests as set out in the ministerial code”.
She said the First Lady’s holdings in the agency were not in the public domain, but said they would be included in the updated statement of ministers’ interests, which will come out in May.
According to BBC, the new scheme could drive up the number of childminders entering the profession and generate more business for companies such as Koru Kids, which is listed as one of six childminder agencies on the government’s website.
The agency welcomed the government’s reforms on its website and said “the new incentives open to childminders are great”.The website says new childminders would get a bonus of 1,200 pounds if they “come through an agency like Koru Kids who offer community, training and ongoing support”.
Last year, Sunak and his wife entered The Sunday Times Rich List for the first time with their joint 730 million pound fortune.
Indeed, Akshata Murthy is said to be wealthier than even King Charles III due to her 430 million pounds stake in her billionaire tycoon father Narayana Murthy’s IT empire.
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday dismissed a bail plea of former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in the excise policy case lodged by the CBI.
Special Judge M K Nagpal dismissed Sisodia’s plea.
On March 24, the Delhi court had reserved its order.
The agency on February 26 had arrested Sisodia in connection with alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.
BRUSSELS — A top European Union official is leaving his role in charge of transport policy, following POLITICO’s revelations that he accepted free flights on Qatar Airways while his team negotiated a major aviation deal with the Gulf state.
Henrik Hololei, director general of the European Commission’s transport department, faced an internal investigation into the flights, and whether he was right to clear himself of any conflict of interest.
On Wednesday, POLITICO revealed Hololei will leave his job as director general of the transport department, known in the Brussels lexicon as DG MOVE, and will become a political adviser with no management responsibility in DG INTPA, the Commission’s department in charge of international partnerships.
A spokesperson for the Commission later confirmed to reporters that Hololei would move to his new role on April 1.
Hololei himself announced his job switch in an email to staff. “Dear friends and colleagues,” Hololei wrote. “I wanted to let you know myself that Friday will be my last day at DG MOVE. I am sure that you have seen the recent press coverage of my participation in international conferences.
“This has become a distraction, and is preventing DG MOVE from moving forward with the files that are so important for the safer, more sustainable, smarter and more resilient transport system that Europe needs and deserves,” he said. “I have asked to be moved to another position, which I will take up at DG INTPA.”
POLITICO reported a month ago that Hololei flew business class for free on Qatar Airways nine times between 2015 and 2021, according to details obtained through freedom of information requests. Six of the free flights occurred while the market access agreement between the EU and Doha was being put together, and four of these were paid for by the government of Qatar or a group with links to Qatar.
The disclosures immediate triggered a storm of criticism, calls for an inquiry and demands to overhaul the rules. The Commission initially insisted Hololei had not broken any rules, but then later moved to tighten those same rules to make sure his behavior could not be repeated in future. An internal investigation is under way into the flights, after officials confirmed that Hololei himself had been the person who signed off on the ethical question of whether they represented a conflict of interest.
In recent days, POLITICO has reported on calls from within the Commission for Hololei to step aside.
The episode comes at a highly sensitive time for the EU. The Brussels institutions are already battling to save their reputation amid a corruption scandal involving allegations that Qatar and other foreign governments paid MEPs and others to do their bidding in the European Parliament.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the Commission, vowed in light of the so-called Qatargate scandal to crack down on corruption, throwing her weight behind the idea of an ethical oversight body that would be able to probe and penalize misdeeds across all EU institutions.
While the Parliament is undergoing reforms to avoid future corruption problems, the Commission and the Council of the EU have not been involved in the scandal and stopped short of announcing any internal changes as a result.
But the Hololei case, which centered on a senior official closely involved with a major transport deal crucial to the Gulf state, widened the focus of scrutiny to include the European Commission, which is in charge proposing EU legislation.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
