The EU-funded College of Europe must clarify its financial ties to
Saudi Arabia, the chair of a powerful European Parliament (EP) budgetary
committee has said.
The demand follows revelations last week by this website that the Saudis had paid the College of Europe to meet MEPs in a closed-door briefing at the EP as part of what the post-graduate institute describes as an "information or training exercise".
"This is clearly a type of action, which characterises a lobbyist organisation," said German centre-right MEP Ingeborg Graessle, who presides over the EP's budgetary control committee, in a letter sent on Wednesday (20 February) to College of Europe rector Jorg Monar and seen by EUobserver.
The Saudi-EP meeting on 19 February came less than a week after the EU parliament had passed a resolution condemning the abuse of human rights in Saudi Arabia.
It also followed recent moves by the European Union to put the Kingdom on a terror finance blacklist, as well as an arms embargo by Germany and several other EU states over the Saudi regime's murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last October.
"Bearing in mind that the College of Europe receives funds from the EU budget, we as the discharge authority of the EU, need to have a clear picture of your undertakings in order to safeguard the interests of EU taxpayers," Graessle said in her letter.
Read more at: EP budget chair seeks clarity on Saudi lobbying and College of Europe
The demand follows revelations last week by this website that the Saudis had paid the College of Europe to meet MEPs in a closed-door briefing at the EP as part of what the post-graduate institute describes as an "information or training exercise".
"This is clearly a type of action, which characterises a lobbyist organisation," said German centre-right MEP Ingeborg Graessle, who presides over the EP's budgetary control committee, in a letter sent on Wednesday (20 February) to College of Europe rector Jorg Monar and seen by EUobserver.
The Saudi-EP meeting on 19 February came less than a week after the EU parliament had passed a resolution condemning the abuse of human rights in Saudi Arabia.
It also followed recent moves by the European Union to put the Kingdom on a terror finance blacklist, as well as an arms embargo by Germany and several other EU states over the Saudi regime's murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last October.
"Bearing in mind that the College of Europe receives funds from the EU budget, we as the discharge authority of the EU, need to have a clear picture of your undertakings in order to safeguard the interests of EU taxpayers," Graessle said in her letter.
Read more at: EP budget chair seeks clarity on Saudi lobbying and College of Europe
