UAE Paid Hannah Neumann MEP To Promote National Projects - Qatargate

They both participated in most Gulf related activities and delegations.

We can also exclusively reveal that the assitant of Hannah Neumann MEP was in Mali with Eva Kaili. Hannah Neumann MEP did not comment on the type of this trip to Mali and on what capacity the assistant escorted Kaili to Mali.

Lately, according to Italian media, Brussels International Center for Research and Human Rights (BIC) has been in the spotlight recently for paying Hannah Neumann, a member of the European Parliament, to lobby for the UAE. The payment for her services to promote national projects such as Dubai Expo and soon Cop28. While BIC claims to be a non-profit organisation focused on international election observations and refugee migration, its funding sources have been a topic of suspicion and scrutiny for several years.

Neumann has also called for closed door meeting for Gulf Ambassadors in Brussels despite the ban of European Parliament.

According to reports, since 2018, BIC has been receiving between €300,000 and €400,000 annually in donations from the UAE. The board of directors of the NGO has not contributed to the costs of reports and events, and there are no reports regarding the funding on their website. The source of the funding is unknown, and the transfer of large sums of money into various accounts of the NGO has raised concerns and suspicions.

Hannah Secret Meetings with UAE Officials

In May last year, Hannah visited the UAE on a week-long visit on a stated trip for a mission to reconcile EU-UAE relationships. On her website she stated that "As Chair of the European Parliament's Delegation to the Arab Peninsula (DARP), my work sometimes is a diplomatic tightrope walk. This was the case during the latest DARP mission to the United Arab Emirates from 22-26 May" However, she did not specify the meeting schedules she conducted on the sideline of her publicly stated DARP meetings. Sources close to the Emirati government revealed that Hannan conducted 3 back to back meetings with officials, including Ali Rashid Al-Nuaimi who is a key player in recruiting Hannah to lobby for the UAE in EU Parliament. It is speculated that the payment agreement was made in those meetings.

Hannah Neumann was paid half a million euros by BIC to lobby for the UAE. Her role was to influence the EU's policies towards the UAE, specifically in matters of human rights and democracy. The payment was made in several instalments, and the details of the transaction were kept confidential. Neumann, who had previously been critical of the UAE's human rights record, has been accused of compromising her principles for financial gain.