After ‘Qatargate’, the European Parliament has been rocked by a new affair: a series of searches were carried out on Thursday in Belgium and Portugal and several suspects were arrested in an investigation into corruption within the EU institution, “under the guise of commercial lobbying”.
According to several Belgian media sources, the investigation targets lobbyists’ practices within the European Parliament, linked to the Chinese telecommunications group Huawei.
“We can neither confirm nor deny this,” a spokeswoman for the Belgian federal police told AFP. The Chinese group, for its part, also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The investigation into practices dating back to 2021 saw around 100 federal police officers mobilised on Thursday morning, carrying out around 20 searches throughout Belgium, the federal prosecutor’s office revealed. “Several people” were taken in for questioning.
The operation also involved Portugal, where a company suspected of receiving transfers of money intended for MEPs is based, according to the newspaper Le Soir.
“Corruption is said to have been practised regularly and very discreetly from 2021 to the present day, under the guise of commercial lobbying and taking various forms, such as remuneration for political positions taken or excessive gifts such as catering or travel expenses, or regular invitations to football matches,” the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office said.
The aim was to “promote purely private commercial interests within the framework of political decisions”, it added.
At the heart of the investigation is a former parliamentary assistant employed as public affairs director at Huawei’s Brussels office, according to Le Soir.
The Belgian newspaper claims that several lobbyists have been arrested, and that some 15 MEPs are on the investigators’ radar.
No MEPs were among those arrested on Thursday morning. The police operation took place as Parliament was meeting in plenary session in Strasbourg, France.
According to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, the investigation concerns “active corruption within the European Parliament” as well as “forgery and use of forgeries”, all as part of a “criminal organisation”.
Painful reminder
Payments and other financial benefits were allegedly “concealed in financial flows linked to the payment of conference expenses, and paid to various intermediaries”, according to the public prosecutor’s office, which said it was also seeking to detect any money laundering. “Several documents and objects have been seized and are to be the subject of in-depth analysis.”
It is the second time in less than three years that the European Parliament, the EU’s only elected institution, has been rocked by a corruption scandal.
The Belgian judiciary has been investigating Qatargate since 2022, involving several former Socialist MEPs suspected of having been corrupted by two foreign powers: Qatar and Morocco. The two countries, which are suspected of having made gifts or cash payments in order to improve their human rights record, have always firmly denied this.
“For too long, MEPs have adopted a reckless approach to ethics and continue to live in a culture of impunity,” said Transparency International, describing the new revelations as “just as serious” as those of Qatargate.
The NGO called for wide-ranging and rapid reform of ethical rules in force at the Parliament.
“Corruption must be punished. We really need independent monitoring of ethical violations, and this is a painful reminder after Qatargate that the European Union remains vulnerable,” German Green MEP Daniel Freund told AFP.
The European Parliament said on Thursday morning that it would “take note” of the new investigation and promised to “cooperate fully”, according to a spokesperson.
(This article from the AFP news agency has been translated for Luxembourg Times from French.)
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