A recent corruption scandal engulfed the European Parliament after police carried out raids in Belgium and Portugal on Thursday, arresting a number of suspects in a probe centered on allegations of lobbying-linked bribing geared toward benefiting Chinese tech big Huawei.
The arrests got here as an investigation by Le Soir newspaper and different media mentioned lobbyists working for the Chinese telecoms big have been suspected of bribing present or former European Parliament members to advertise the corporate’s industrial insurance policies in Europe.
None of these held for questioning on Thursday have been EU lawmakers, a police supply informed Agence France-Presse (AFP). But Belgian media reported greater than a dozen parliamentarians have been on the detectives’ radar.
Transparency campaigners, who’ve accused EU lawmakers of resisting reform, known as on the parliament to instantly examine the newest claims.
“The alleged bribery is said to have benefitted Huawei,” the Belgian federal prosecutor’s workplace mentioned after native media reported the probe centered on the corporate.
The prosecutor’s workplace had earlier mentioned a number of individuals have been 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 choose ordered seals on the European Parliament workplaces of two parliamentary assistants and a suspect had been arrested in France, it added in a second assertion within the afternoon.
The EU parliament mentioned it had acquired a request for cooperation from the Belgian authorities and would “swiftly and fully honor” it.
Prosecutors mentioned 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 a part of a bid to advertise “purely private commercial interests” in political choices.
The alleged kickbacks have been hid as convention bills and paid to numerous intermediaries, the workplace mentioned, including it was whether or not cash laundering had additionally been concerned.
About 100 law enforcement officials took half within the operation that noticed a complete of 21 searches performed throughout Belgium and in Portugal, it added.
Belgium’s Le Soir day by day mentioned the Portuguese search centered on an organization by way of which transfers had allegedly been made to a number of EU lawmakers.
Portugal’s prosecutor normal confirmed the raids have been performed “at the request of the Belgian authorities” however didn’t present extra particulars.
‘Mockery of democracy’
At the center of the alleged corruption is a former parliamentary assistant who was employed as Huawei’s EU public affairs director, Belgian media mentioned.
Follow The Money, an investigative journalism platform, mentioned the primary suspect was 41-year-old Valerio Ottati, a Belgian-Italian lobbyist who joined Huawei in 2019.
Before turning into Huawei’s EU public affairs director, Ottati was an assistant to 2 Italian MEPs who have been each members of a European Parliament group coping with China coverage, Follow the Money reported.
Huawei has been within the EU’s crosshairs in recent times.
Brussels in 2023 described the telecoms big as a better threat to the bloc than different 5G suppliers and known as on EU states to exclude its gear from their cellular networks.
Le Soir mentioned police had taken “several lobbyists” into custody they usually have been as a result of seem in entrance of a choose for questioning.
Transparency defenders have been scathing of their criticism of the parliament’s lack of wide-ranging reforms after the 2022 scandal.
In December 2022, the legislature was shaken by the “Qatargate” scandal, wherein quite a few EU lawmakers have been accused of being paid to advertise the pursuits of Qatar and Morocco – one thing each nations have firmly denied.
“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,” mentioned Nicholas Aiossa, director at Transparency International EU.
He urged swift and deep reform within the parliament, a name echoed by former transparency campaigner and present Green EU lawmaker, Daniel Freund.
“This painfully shows that following Qatargate the EU remains vulnerable to corruption. Some reforms are still being blocked,” Freund informed AFP, including: “We finally need independent oversight for ethics violations.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com