My guest is Michael Van Hulton. Michael Van Hulton.

Michael Van Hulton is Director of Transparency International EU.

Welcome to the podcast, Michal.

Thank you.

We're going to talk maybe inevitably, Michele, about Qatar Gate.

It was very much in the news that toward the end of the last year,

obviously, maybe less so more recently.

And therefore, maybe you could start by reminding the listeners a bit the main elements

of this so-called Qatar Gate story.

So in December last year, on a Friday afternoon, I remember very clearly because we're

all winding down for the weekend, news broke

that a vice president of the European Parliament had been arrested in connection with alleged

bribery by the Qatari government. And this turned out to be a huge scandal involving not

just allegedly the vice president,

but also other MEPs, a former MEP, staffers of the of the of the of the

of the MEPs and millions of euros are set to have exchanged hands.

And and and the allegation is that Qatar and potentially other foreign governments bribed these people in the Brussels institution to seek better opinions of the country to get favorable treatment in the work of the institution, to improve Qatar's image in the realm of the World Cup, get visa free travel, etc.

So to get favorable treatment from these individuals.

And judging, by the way, the institution has addressed these issues over the last year or so,

it would seem that they were at least in part successful in doing so.

Right. So in the three months since this story first broke,

can you give us a sense if you have one of where we stand now and how do you think the next period will pan out in terms of new

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