Huawei, Metsola announces five requests for authorisation to proceed

Brussels – Nikola Minchev (Renew, Bulgarian), Salvatore De Meo (EPP, Italian), Fulvio Martusciello (EPP, Italian), Giusi Princi (EPP, Italian) and Daniel Attard (S&D, Maltese). The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, announced in plenary this evening the names of the five MEPs for whom the Belgian judiciary has asked the European Parliament for authorisation to proceed in the framework of the investigation into the so-called Huawei case.

All MEPs (except Martusciello) between yesterday and today had already made it known that they had been contacted by the Belgian judiciary. The matter now passes to the Legal Affairs Commission, which will examine it on a case-by-case basis.

The Belgian federal police had searched on 13 March 21 flats and offices of lobbyists and former lobbyists of Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, and had ordered precautionary measures for some of them, suspected of having bribed elected members of the European Parliament to influence EU policies in favour of the company. A scenario that would undermine the credibility of the Brussels chamber, already sorely tested two years ago by the Qatargate scandal, whose investigation is still ongoing.

According to revelations in the Belgian daily Le Soir, together with the weekly Knack, the Dutch investigative platform Follow The Money and the Greek investigative journalists of Reporters United, at least 15 MEPs and former MEPs were involved. The 13 March raid came after months of investigation, as part of a file opened for counts of corruption, forgery, money laundering, and criminal organisation. A file that has remained under the radar until today, codenamed ‘Génération’.

Subsequently, an associate of Martusciello was arrested in Campania.