European Parliament suspends access to Huawei lobbyists “as a precautionary measure”

Brussels – Faced with early indications of a new alleged bribery scandal of some MEPs, the European Parliament is protecting itself and suspending “as a precautionary measure” access to its premises to representatives linked to Huawei. This was announced today (March 14) by a spokesman for the EU institution. The decision will be applied with immediate effect.

The case erupted yesterday in the early morning, with the raid of a hundred Belgian federal police officers who searched 21 apartments and offices of lobbyists and former lobbyists of the Chinese telecommunications giant. A few hours later, Brussels prosecutors arrested one person in Strasbourg and ordered the sealing of offices assigned to two parliamentary assistants in the Belgian capital’s EU Parliament’s headquarters. The prosecutor’s office confirmed in a statement that the two are “allegedly involved” in the bribery scheme “practiced regularly and very discreetly from 2021 to the present day for the benefit of the company Huawei.”

Meanwhile, the interrogations of some lobbyists linked to the Chinese company, who were arrested yesterday at dawn, are taking place. Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office will not announce until Monday its decision on the validation of the detentions, the maximum deadline for which is 48 hours. According to revelations in the Belgian daily Le Soir, around 15 MEPs and former elected members of the European Parliament are involved, suspected of having—as reconstructed by the police—”taken political positions” in exchange for “outsized compensation or gifts, such as food and travel expenses or regular invitations to soccer matches.”