Qatargate: How the Kaili sisters got jobs worth hundreds of thousands of euros

Politico writes about the action of Eva and Madalena Kaili in a new report, at a time whenwhether the Greek MEP will remain in prison due to her involvement in Qatargate is in front of Belgian law. Politico emphasizes that the two sisters involved lobbying and politics, in a “family affair”.

As Eva Kaili developed into European politics, her sister ran a parallel structure – the Made Group – that “ran” many of the same issues.

Politico notes that when Belgian authorities arrested the Greek MEP over the corruption scandal involving Qatar and Morocco on December 9, the first person to come out to support her was Madalena Kaili.

Such a thing, of course, as it is emphasized, was not surprising in itself since Eva and Madalena have a strong relationship that goes beyond the fact that they are sisters.

The role of Made Group

As Eva Kaili built her career in the European Parliament, Madalena Kaili founded a multi-purpose organization – the Made Group – whose action often coincided with her sister’s initiatives, the Politico report points out. As Eva “grew up” in politics, the Made Group also grew in the background.

An excellent example of where Made Group’s activities intersected with Eva Kaili’s political interests is in the field of science and technology.

While the MEP was turning her attention in the European Parliament to topics such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, Madalena Kaili’s Made Group created a “non-profit initiative” called ELONtech in 2018, which also focused on these areas .

“Blockchain Cheerleader”

Eva Kaili’s efforts as the Parliament’s “cheerleader” for blockchain culminated in the successful presentation of a resolution on this technology in October 2018, notes Politico. The European Parliament’s committee on the future of science and technology (STOA) — then chaired by Eva Kaili — launched its Center for Artificial Intelligence in December 2019.

ELONtech has been a useful ally for such purposes, with the two sisters fully involved in the initiative, as well as Eva Kaili’s parliamentary staff. Madalena Kaili acted as CEO of ELONtech and Eva Kaili was a consultant.

One of ELONtech’s editors, Dimitris Tzanidakis, also appears on Eva Kaili’s list of aides on the European Parliament’s website, while ELONtech’s senior legal advisor, Alexandros Spyridonos, appears on the same list of parliamentary aides as a service provider.

In 2020, Eva Kaili launched an international advisory committee for STOA, which happens to be the European Parliament’s advisory body on EU innovation priorities. The board included a representative from ELONTech and one from the Qatar Foundation, the emirate’s development agency that allocates a lot of money to education, science and culture.

Obscure activities

ELONtech’s operations are extremely loosely defined, Politico notes. It organizes events and describes itself as an “observatory” and “platform” for legal and technological issues. According to transparency platform LobbyFacts.eu, ELONtech was included in the register of EU lobbying organizations since 2020, focusing mainly on blockchain technology – it has since disappeared from the register, Politico reveals.

The parent organization Made Group has not published its accounts, but according to EU figures it has received large amounts of EU funding for its projects, which Eva Kaili has provided support for.

The ELONtech website went down at the end of last week. At the time of writing it is back online, but with the names of all its employees removed. ELONtech’s most recent event, held in the first week of December, was the Athens Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence, hosted by Eva Kaili at the European Parliament.

Τhe appointment of the advisory committee – along with other events and initiatives undertaken during Eva Kaili’s tenure – are νος being reviewed by STOA to make sure everything was done transparently, said a person from the office of one of the MEPs.

Over the past five years, the sisters have often appeared together at tech events and taken part in each other’s initiatives. Lobby group Industry Commons, of which Madalena Kaili is on the board, described her as “chief policy adviser and close associate in the office of her sister, Greek MEP Eva Kaili”, although this is not confirmed on her parliamentary profile page by Eva Kaili.

The description was removed from the Industry Commons website last week, Politico reports.

“Assistant based in Athens”

Madalena Kaili told Politico that she worked for Eva Kaili “as an assistant based in Athens” and that she was registered in Greece under a special contract that she said is “allowed for MEPs.” Madalena Kaili added that she does not know why her name is not included – and never was – οn the list of Eva Kaili’s advisers on the European Parliament’s website.

Eva Kaili was first elected to the European Parliament in 2014, with the Socialists and Democrats group, and quickly became known as an influential legislator on digital archives. An engineer and architect by training, σhe joined the European Parliament’s Industry Committee (ITRE) in July 2014, and went on to contribute to the evaluation of the EU’s €80 billion research and development funding programme, Horizon 2020.

Since 2017 president at STOA

In October of the same year, she became the first vice-president of STOA and rose to the position of president in 2017. In fact, she was the first woman to hold this position, in which she remained until March 2022.

At the same time, back in Greece, Madalena Kaili – who has studied law – was preparing for her own ventures. In August 2017, he founded Made Group, a “non-profit platform for communication strategy, social innovation projects and creative synergies” based in Athens.

As of 2021, Mandalena Kaili was listed as the company’s sole manager and co-founder along with Matina Kanaki, according to documents filed with the Athens Chamber of Commerce. Kanaki was also listed as Eva Kaili’s assistant in February 2020.

In November 2022, Kanaki became the director of Estate Aria Properties, a real estate company founded by Eva Kaili and her partner, Francesco Giorgi. Giorgi, who is originally from Italy, works as an assistant to another MEP, the Italian Andrea Coccolino. Giorgi was also arrested as part of the ongoing Qatargate investigation.

Common activities

During the years since its launch in 2017, Made Group has been involved in various digital projects supported by the Horizon 2020 program – mainly in the international consortium that developed ChildRescue, an application for finding missing migrant children.

Maddalena Kaili’s organization was responsible for communication, receiving €104,037.50 in EU funding between 2018 and 2020. In 2019, Eva Kaili hosted ChildRescue representatives at a parliamentary event organized under the auspices of STOA, and in 2021 she spoke at Made Group workshop with some of the creators of the project.

The Made Group also supported communication for Girls Coding, a 2017 program aimed at teaching software development to young women, which Eva Kaili spoke about at a launch event in October 2017.

Greek NGO Kean

Also involved in the project was Kean, a Greek NGO with Made Group co-founder Matina Kanaki as board secretary. In 2018, a post on Kean’s website credited Eva Kaili with triggering the creation of Girls Coding through a recommendation to the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), which funded the project under Horizon 2020.

An EIT spokesperson said: “Due to the shared interest in greater participation of women and girls in technology, Eva Kaili was among the advocates for the development of the (s.s. specific) programmes.”

In 2020, Made Group was also selected to operate a STARTS regional center – which was part of a program created under Horizon 2020 aimed at integrating art and technology.

The launch of the program was the result of a pilot proposal titled “art and digitalization” submitted by Eva Kaili in 2018, a person with knowledge of EU funding processes told Politico. The person added that the Made Group received 105,172 euros by the Commission for its participation in STARTS.

“We weren’t explicitly following Eva’s agenda”

Speaking to Politico, Madalena Kaili questioned the extent of overlap between the Made Group and the initiatives her sister was taking or participating in in Brussels. “We had activities that didn’t explicitly follow Eva’s agenda,” she said.

In its press release it is stated that the Made Group “has participated in various projects, programs, studies and events in cooperation, where appropriate, with a wide group of non-permanent partners and volunteers”. The press release also emphasizes that ELONtech “is not a legal entity (not a company) and certainly not an NGO and has not received a single euro of funding”.

Politico notes that no one else named in the article responded to requests for comment by the time of publication.