Earlier this month, members of the right-wing populist ESN group submitted a request to the chair of the EU Parliament’s anti-interference committee, Democracy Shield (EUDS), to hold formal debates on the spread of political and ideological influence by Turkey and Gulf states, primarily Qatar.
The proposed exchanges of views would look into Qatar’s “political, religious, and ideological networks” in the EU, as well as Turkey’s use of its diaspora communities and religious institutions to gain political influence in member states.
The heavy financial involvement of both of these countries was explicitly highlighted in the recent French intelligence report on the Muslim Brotherhood’s attempts to undermine Europe as well, so addressing the issue cannot be more urgent.
However, nearly three weeks later, EUDS chairwoman Nathalie Loiseau (Renew) still hasn’t replied to the request, seemingly ignoring the right-wing lawmakers on purpose, according to a letter written to her by MEP Christine Anderson (ESN), seen by europeanconservative.com.
In the document, Anderson reminds Loiseau that on behalf of her group, she initially submitted the requests on July 6th, two days before the next meeting of the EUDS coordinators, who should have been deciding whether to allow the debates, but the chair refused to put them on the agenda. In contrast, other initiatives submitted later were approved.
That’s why, on July 17th, now together with the Patriots (PfE) group, Anderson submitted another request to the Secretariat to initiate the procedure without any further delay, but still, no reply was given as of July 23rd when the letter was sent.
According to the German lawmaker, this treatment underscores the undemocratic double standards within the European Parliament and may even imply that Loiseau and other mainstream members of the Committee are already compromised.
“When the EPP requested an exchange of views, the item was swiftly placed on the coordinators’ agenda. This inconsistency in treatment undermines democratic equality in our committee,” Anderson wrote to Loiseau.
“Your apparent reluctance—or refusal—to allow a coordinators’ decision on these topics is unacceptable,” she went on, adding that
It is entirely legitimate, and high time, to raise these issues for discussion. Why are we being blocked from doing so? What is your interest here?
Therefore, the MEP once again, for a third time, requested the “immediate” initiation of the process to put the two topics on the coordinators’ agenda.
