A proposed aviation deal between the European Union and Qatar is under scrutiny after the end-of-January sacking of the European official who negotiated it, following allegations of corruption.
Henrik Hololei, the European Commission’s ex-director for transport, brokered the EU-Qatar Comprehensive Aviation Agreement, a deal that would have given Qatar Airways access to the European market and EU airlines access to Qatar. Hololei, who resigned from his transport directorship in 2023, moved into a Commission special advisor role within international partnerships, but was fired on 29 January 2026 for rule-breaking.
The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) investigated him for accepting gifts, including free business class flights, and for failing to comply with procedures on conflicts of interest, transparency, and disclosure.
Now, lobby groups both for and against the deal are responding. Critics have long argued that the proposal, which is yet to be approved by all EU members and the EU parliament, gives Qatar Airways an unfair advantage over European carriers. Airline lobby group ENAA, the European Transport Workers’ Federation, and the European Cockpit Association pilots’ union have all called for the deal to be “immediately suspended” pending “full clarification of corruption allegations.”
ENAA director for competitiveness, Arnaud Camus, claimed “there was no transparency throughout the negotiating process, there was the ‘official negotiation’ and there were other things going on,” calling for the Commission to make clear which rules had been breached.
On the other side of the equation, those in favour of the deal say scrapping it would be a disservice to European airports and flyers. Like the Commission, which has described the deal as being “conducted in a fully transparent manner” and “endorsed unanimously” by EU member states, ACI EUROPE’s position is that there is “no tangible evidence that this agreement has resulted in a dominant or unfair position of Qatar Airways at the expense of European airlines.”
ACI added that “Qatar Airways has not grown into the European market over the past years,” pointing out that the carrier is operating a winter schedule with 10% less capacity than its 2019 level.
Going further, Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI EUROPE, said in a statement: “There is no question that suspending an existing EU aviation agreement would be damaging for Europe’s airports, and the communities and consumers they serve.”
Jankovec insists the “gap between European airlines and their competitors in other world regions is mainly of the EU’s own making. It is due to inadequate and damaging policies and regulations, ranging from taxation and insufficient support for decarbonisation to the failure to deliver the Single European Sky and airport capacity limitations. This only reinforces our call for an EU Aviation Strategy that delivers a much-needed aviation policy reset.”
As the row rumbles on, 12 European countries, including big players like Germany and France, still have not ratified the deal.
