Workers’ deaths in Qatar’s World Cup split EU Parliament

Updated with MEP Kostas Arvanitis comments

The European Parliament’s leftist GUE-NGL group’s success in having a last-minute resolution and not just a discussion over the FIFA World Cup in Qatar has opened Pandora’s Box in the EU House.

Six different resolutions are currently on the table, with some avoiding a reference to the “deaths” of workers in preparing for the biggest football tournament worldwide.

Earlier this week, leftist GUE-NGL proposed a resolution and not just a discussion – as it was scheduled – over human rights in the context of the tournament.

EURACTIV was informed that the Greens, centrist Renew Europe and some few lawmakers from the socialists (S&D), the European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR) and the European People’s Party (EPP) backed the motion for a resolution to send “a clear political message to the world”, according to a source close to the matter.

The vast majority of S&D and the EPP voted against having a resolution.

S&D lawmaker and EU Parliament vice-president Eva Kaili took a step further, saying Qatar is a “frontrunner in labour rights”.

“Today’s World Cup is proof of how sports diplomacy can achieve a historical transformation of a country with reforms that inspired the Arab world. ILO said Qatar is a frontrunner in labour rights,” she said.

“Still some here are calling to discriminate them […] they bully them and accuse everyone who talks to them or engages of corruption. But still, they take their gas, still having their companies profiting billions there,” she added.

EURACTIV went through all six draft resolutions currently on the table, and it seems that only the one from EPP misses the word “death”.

Instead, the EPP focuses on Qatar’s energy potential.

The European Parliament “notes that Qatar is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of liquefied natural gas; underlines the importance of the Qatari energy sector; stresses that Qatar is a significant alternative source to Russian oil and gas”, the EPP draft resolution reads.

All other political groups call on Qatar for enhanced investigation on the workers’ deaths reported by human rights organisations and media reports.

Nikos Androulakis, the leader of Pasok, immediately reacted against Kailis’ statement.

“It is not an opinion that expresses the priorities of our party [Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement – Pasok]. We have another position on this very important issue of human rights and working conditions”, he told Blue Sky news.

Despite the initial reservations, the S&D draft resolution is harsh toward Qatar when it comes to human rights and workers’ deaths. However, the socialists also recognise the importance of Qatar for the EU REPowerEU2 strategy.

Leftist MEP Kostas Arvanitis tweeted a video describing the organisation as the “World Cup of shame” because of the 6,500 alleged deaths.

“The progressive front did not make its presence as dynamic as the circumstances demanded: As in the vote, so in the debate the members of the S&D group appeared awkward and divided: some clearly critical, some trying to keep balance and others openly whitewashing the organisers,” Kostas Arvanitis told EURACTIV.

“On Thursday, in the vote, the European Parliament will have an important opportunity to show the ‘red card in the ‘World Cup of Shame’, if of course all political forces choose to listen to the anger of millions of EU citizens and set aside geopolitical and economic expediencies,” he added.

(Sarantis Michalopoulos | EURACTIV.com)

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