“Quatargate”: The presence of Qatar’s labor minister causes trouble at the International Labor Organization conference

Once again, all attention should be paid to the conference of the International Labor Organization (ILO), which opens in Geneva on June 5. Not necessarily because of the program of this annual forum, which is essentially supposed to approve the broad mandate and budget of this United Nations agency, but because it should, in principle, be chaired by Qatar’s presiding minister of labor, Ali bin Samih. Al-Mar.

This leader represents a country strongly questioned by the ban on trade union freedoms and the fate it has left for foreign workers, especially during the construction of stadiums for the 2022 soccer World Cup. Moreover, the minister is the main figure. “Cattargate”, a nickname for a Belgian judicial investigation into the corruption of members or former members of the European Parliament, revealed by a search in December 2022.

In 2018, the then leader of the National Human Rights Committee in his country established contacts with the former Italian Socialist MEP Antonio Panzer and his assistant Francesco Giorgi. Mr Panzer, who has accepted penitent status, and his right-hand man claim that others, including the Greek MP Eva Kyle and his Belgian counterpart Marc Tarabella, were then involved in an operation aimed at reshaping the emirate’s image and praising it. Estimated progress in social rights. There was also talk of weighing up the Assembly’s work in terms of visa liberalization, the Air Agreement or workers’ rights in the emirate. All participants of the scandal are now awaiting trial, M^I Kyle was allowed to have his electronic bracelet removed on May 25.

Even if it is primarily ceremonial, the chairmanship of the ILO conference, also known as the “world parliament of workers”, is a little too symbolic in the eyes of European officials who discovered “Cathargate” in December 2022. Belgian Minister of Economy and Labor Pierre-Yves Dermany (PS) said “fear” about the consequences of the scandal “Qatar’s ability to provide a minimal climate of trust” in the ILO.

“encouraging signal”

However, for his country and others, including France, the crisis in the Swiss capital is not out of the question: several chancelleries are counting on the votes that workers’ representatives may demand at the conference. This will allow the Europeans to refrain from appointing the Qatari minister, if possible, to express the common position of the EU member states. The vote will be another symbol and a first for the tripartite organization (it brings together delegates from states, employers and unions), which typically operates by consensus.