The Qatari authorities have threatened to review their ties with the European Union following the institutional response to revelations about an alleged bribery scheme in the European Parliament in favor of the emirate and the Kingdom of Morocco.
The European Parliament's decision to suspend all bilateral dossiers and the request to close its doors to representatives of its government are seen as "discriminatory restrictions" that "will limit our dialogue" and "negatively affect regional and global cooperation, as well as to discussions about energy shortages and security," sources from the Qatari delegation to the EU told Reuters on Sunday, reiterating that they have nothing to do with the investigation opened by the Belgian authorities.
Among the works suspended in the European Parliament, the agreement for the exemption of visas and an aviation pact that was already in the process of being ratified stand out.
"Qatar was not the only country named in the investigation and even so it has been the only one that has been criticized and attacked," complains the Government of the emirate, which reproaches the Government of Belgium for not having contacted them to "establish the facts", having as close an economic relationship as they have, he points out, in the gas sector.
In subsequent statements, Qatari diplomatic sources assured that they are not questioning energy cooperation with the European Union. Qatar is, together with Norway, the United States and Azerbaijan, one of the new star gas suppliers of the European Union, which in less than a year has achieved a spectacular reduction in dependence on Russian gas, which has gone from representing 40 % of the bloc's imports to less than 7%. The reverberations from Qatargate illustrate the risk, already pointed out when the agreements were signed, that the EU continues to be exposed to energy blackmail by its new partners.
