A new graft scandal rocked the European Parliament after police on Thursday carried out raids in Belgium and Portugal, detaining multiple suspects in a probe into suspicions of corruption under the guise of lobbying for the benefit of Chinese tech giant Huawei.
The new investigation comes more than two years after the “Qatargate” scandal, in which a number of EU lawmakers were accused of being paid to promote the interests of Qatar and Morocco — something both countries have firmly denied.
None of those held for questioning on Thursday were EU lawmakers, a police source said. However, Belgian media reported more than a dozen parliamentarians were on the detectives’ radar.
Photo: AP
Transparency campaigners, who have accused EU lawmakers of resisting reform, called on the parliament to immediately investigate the latest claims.
“The alleged bribery is said to have benefitted Huawei,” the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said after local media reported the probe focused on the company.
Huawei said it took the allegations “seriously” and would “urgently communicate with the investigation to further understand the situation.”
“Huawei has a zero tolerance policy towards corruption or other wrongdoing, and we are committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations at all times,” it said in a statement yesterday.
The Belgian prosecutor’s office earlier said several people were taken in for questioning over their “alleged involvement in active corruption within the European Parliament, as well as for forgery and use of forgeries.”
The investigating judge ordered seals on the European Parliament offices of two parliamentary assistants and a suspect had been arrested in France, it added in a second statement on Thursday afternoon.
The EU parliament said it had received a request for cooperation from the Belgian authorities and would “swiftly and fully honor” it.
Prosecutors said the alleged corruption by a “criminal organization” was “practiced regularly and very discreetly from 2021 to the present day” and took “various forms.”
These included “remuneration for taking political positions or excessive gifts such as food and travel expenses or regular invitations to football matches” as part of a bid to promote “purely private commercial interests” in political decisions.
The alleged kickbacks were concealed as conference expenses and paid to various intermediaries, the office said, adding it was looking at whether money laundering had also been involved.
About 100 police officers took part in the operation, which included a total of 21 searches conducted across Belgium and in Portugal, it added.
Belgium’s Le Soir daily said the Portuguese search focused on a company through which transfers had allegedly been made to one or more EU lawmakers.
Portugal’s prosecutor general confirmed the raids were conducted “at the request of the Belgian authorities,” but did not provide more details.
At the heart of the alleged corruption is a former parliamentary assistant who was employed as Huawei’s EU public affairs director, Belgian media said.
Huawei has been in the EU’s crosshairs in recent years.
Brussels in 2023 described the telecoms giant as a higher risk to the bloc than other 5G suppliers and called on EU states to exclude its equipment from their mobile networks.
Le Soir said police had taken “several lobbyists” into custody and they were due to appear in front of a judge for questioning.
Transparency defenders were scathing in their criticism of the parliament’s lack of wide-ranging reforms after the 2022 scandal.
“These new allegations are as sweeping and serious as Qatargate and make a mockery of democracy at the European Parliament. For too long, MEPs have taken a carefree approach to ethics and continue to exist in a culture of impunity,” Transparency International EU director Nicholas Aiossa said.
He urged swift and deep reform in the parliament, a call echoed by former transparency campaigner and current Green EU lawmaker, Daniel Freund.
“This painfully shows that following Qatargate the EU remains vulnerable to corruption. Some reforms are still being blocked,” Freund said, adding: “We finally need independent oversight for ethics violations.”
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
COMFORT WOMEN CLASH: Japan has strongly rejected South Korean court rulings ordering the government to provide reparations to Korean victims of sexual slavery The Japanese government yesterday defended its stance on wartime sexual slavery and described South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese compensation as violations of international law, after UN investigators criticized Tokyo for failing to ensure truth-finding and reparations for the victims. In its own response to UN human rights rapporteurs, South Korea called on Japan to “squarely face up to our painful history” and cited how Tokyo’s refusal to comply with court orders have denied the victims payment. The statements underscored how the two Asian US allies still hold key differences on the issue, even as they pause their on-and-off disputes over historical
CONSOLIDATION: The Indonesian president has used the moment to replace figures from former president Jokowi’s tenure with loyal allies In removing Indonesia’s finance minister and U-turning on protester demands, the leader of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy is scrambling to restore public trust while seizing a chance to install loyalists after deadly riots last month, experts say. Demonstrations that were sparked by low wages, unemployment and anger over lawmakers’ lavish perks grew after footage spread of a paramilitary police vehicle running over a delivery motorcycle driver. The ensuing riots, which rights groups say left at least 10 dead and hundreds detained, were the biggest of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s term, and the ex-general is now calling on the public to restore their
RSS