European socialists seek to maintain EP vice-presidency withdrawn from Kaili after being charged with bribery from Qatar

BRUSSELS, Jan. 11 () –

The Socialists and Democrats (S&D) in the European Parliament aspire to maintain the vice-presidency that was withdrawn from the Greek socialist MEP Eva Kaili for her alleged involvement in the Qatari bribery scheme, for which this Wednesday the group has elected the Luxembourger Marc Angel as a candidate to fill a vacancy that will be disputed by at least one candidate from Los Verdes, the French Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield.

The Social Democrats have chosen Angel as their candidate with the will to “lead the reform process necessary to fight corruption and interference”, as they have communicated through social networks.

Despite the scandal over the corruption network uncovered by the Belgian Justice and for which several Socialist MEPs are being investigated, the group trusts that its candidate will have a “solid majority” of support from the European Parliament, according to what Social Democratic sources have told Europe Press.

The European Parliament will hold the vote next Tuesday during its plenary session held in Strasbourg (France), until which time nominations could be submitted at the last minute.

At the moment, however, only the Greens group disputes the Socialist candidate for the position with the defense of the French MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield as the best option.

“We need a zero tolerance strategy against corruption. We need more lack of transparency, accountability and supervision,” Delbos-Corfield said after being chosen as a candidate by her group.

“We have to regain the trust of citizens with strict anti-corruption measures. This means significantly improving the protection of whistleblowers, establishing an independent ethics body with investigative power, the mandatory registration of third countries in the transparency register and the registration of the meetings of the lobbies, even with representatives of third countries”, has defended.

The Eurocámara elected its fourteen vice-presidents just a year ago for the remaining two and a half years of the legislature, a distribution that the groups negotiate every half legislature. Based on the balance agreed then between the main families -European People’s Party, Social Democrats and Liberals-, the Socialists hope to win again the vice-presidency at stake after the dismissal of Kaili.