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When it comes to an online record of past lobbying work, Eva Kelly’s sister Mantalena wants a clean slate.
Eva, a former vice-president of the European Parliament who was arrested in December on corruption charges, was a regular attendee at events organized by her younger sister. The Greek non-profit MADE Group of Mantalena had developed a network of organizations and projects. closely aligned With tech-savvy Eva working in Parliament. The MADE group competed for and won EU tenders, once receiving €105,172 from a pilot project pushed to Parliament by Eva Kelli.
In Brussels, Mantalena was known as the executive director of ELONtech, an “observatory” on technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, whose events are sometimes held at the European Parliament and Eva has been featured as a speaker. was painted. After the Qatargate scandal broke out late last year, ELONtech was “obliged to cease its operations” by removing all references to both Kallis from its website and to its unpaid consultants, stating that it was “unforeseen”. , tried to make himself inconspicuous. [sic] and turbulent situation,” according to a Dec. 14, 2022 email viewed by POLITICO.
Traces of Alontech’s activities in Brussels, however, Stay alive on LobbyFacts.euA website that preserves data from the EU’s Transparency Register, which tracks lobbying in the bloc – and Mantlena Calli recently asked LobbyFacts.eu to delete all information about the organization from the website.
In a December 30 email to LobbyFacts.eu seen by Politico, Mantalena wrote, “I request the removal of data found by the European Law Observatory on New Technologies, named ELONTECH, which I co-founded.” “These are false [sic] Entered this platform, it is not a legal entity, nor acts as a lobbying organization.
Vicky Cain, one of the publicists who manages LobbyFacts.U, who Corporate Europe Observatory And lobby control, told POLITICO that Kelly sent several follow-up emails demanding ELONtech remove the information. Cain said all the data is took “From the EU Lobby Transparency Register, so any information we show must have come from there and declared by the registrant himself.”
Actually, Elontech appears in stored data from the Transparency Register, which shows that the “NGO” was registered on October 2, 2020; Cain said ELONtech remained on the register until May 2022 before being removed.
In an email, the Transparency Register secretariat told POLITICO that ELONtech was automatically delisted in May 2022 because of its “failure to transfer and update its data” in line with requirements. [a] New Inter-Institutional Agreement,” which introduced stricter disclosure rules.
LobbyFacts.eu’s entry for ELONtech has more information than the register’s collection of topics the entity is interested in. Under the label “Key EU files targeted”, LobbyFacts.eu shows that ELONtech has provided a “contribution to the EU Blockchain Observatory”, without any specifics. Information about that contribution.
The EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum is a think tank funded by the European Commission. First created as a pilot project in 2018, it frequently featured blockchain-boosting Eva Kelly at its events; In 2021, Callie secures €525,000 in further EU funding For the continuation of the project through amendments to the EU budget procedure.
Since 2020, the blockchain think tank has been run by a consortium of seven partners, three of whom are Greek organisations, including one – the research institute CERTH – which held a joint event with ELONtech in 2019, Spokespeople for both the Blockchain Observatory and the commission denied that Elontech provided any “contributions” to the think tank.
In an email to POLITICO, Michaelis Dimitrakopoulos, Mantalena Cali’s attorney, agreed that “ELONtech had no involvement in or contribution to the development of the EU Blockchain Observatory at any point.” Dimitrakopoulos also said that ELONtech has “no legal entity,” “never received European funding,” and “had nothing to do with lobbying services.”
“We too, don’t know why [ELONtech] This registry has falsely appeared without any justification,” said the lawyer, adding that he had contacted the Transparency Register regarding the matter and was awaiting a response.
Whoever created it, the Transparency Register entry for ELONtech has the correct address and the correct phone number for the employee – although that information can be obtained from an event-promotion page on ELONtech’s website.
Dimitrakopoulos did not immediately respond to follow-up questions about who made the entry without Mantalena Cali’s knowledge. At the time of publication, the Transparency Register secretariat did not respond to questions from POLITICO about the possibility that Elontech could be added to the registry by someone outside the organization.