31/10/24 (Agence Europe) – On Thursday 31 October, the European Commission announced that Henrik Hololei, the former Director-General of the Commission’s Directorate-General for Transport, was subject to “disciplinary follow-up”, in accordance with the recommendations of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the findings of which were forwarded to the Commission’s President, Ursula von der Leyen, in July, as revealed by the newspaper Libération. Now an ‘adviser hors classe’ in another Directorate-General of the EU institution, Mr Hololei benefited from free business class travel on Qatar Airways between 2015 and 2021 when his staff were negotiating an agreement with Doha to allow the Qatari airline access to the EU market (see EUROPE 13135/18). At present, we are in “the pre-disciplinary phase”, explained Commission spokesperson Balazs Ujvari, noting that OLAF was not recommending that the case be referred to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office or to the Belgian courts. (MB)