Several European political families called, on Tuesday 23 April, for strong measures to be taken quickly by the European Parliament to detect and punish members of staff who encourage interference by third countries that are competitors of the European Union or even hostile to the EU.
German MEP Terry Reintke and Dutch MEP Bas Eickhout, co-leaders of the ‘European Green Party’ list in the European elections, have urged European Parliament President Roberta Metsola to “speed up the Parliament’s investigation” into certain MEPs and their staff. “Autocracies like China and Russia are actively trying to undermine our democracies in Europe. This must stop. The investigation within the European Parliament must be speeded up. We demand preliminary results before the elections. Consequences must follow quickly”, said Ms Reintke in a press release.
The Greens were reacting to the announcement by a German prosecutor concerning the arrest in Dresden the previous day of Jian Guo, a colleague of MEP Maximilian Krah, a leader of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, which has so far been given a good score in polls for the European elections in June.
The suspect is an employee of a Chinese secret service and, in January 2024, he repeatedly passed on information about the European Parliament’s negotiations and decisions to the Chinese intelligence services, the German authorities said, quoted by AFP. He also allegedly spied on members of the Chinese opposition in Germany.
Accreditation suspended. On Tuesday, in a statement, the Renew Europe group also called on Ms Metsola to “take swift action to strengthen staff security checks and ensure the safety of Parliament, including temporarily removing the arrested employee’s access to Parliament until the investigation is complete”.
Questioned by Agence Europe, a European Parliament spokesperson said that “given the seriousness of the revelations, Parliament has suspended the person in question (Jian Guo) with immediate effect”.
Speaking to the press, the Chair of the S&D group said she was “concerned” to see an already identified fear being realised. We had asked for a special “commission” to be set up to investigate foreign interference in the elections to derail democracy, she recalled, hardly surprised that the far right was primarily concerned.
“I understand better why the ID group is opposed to all the ethical reforms we are advocating. We understand better their interest in hiding their links with autocratic regimes”, said Manon Aubry, Co-Chair of The Left Group. She advocated “powers of investigation and sanctions” for the future European Ethics Body (see other news).
On Thursday, the European Parliament will be asked to adopt a resolution on the allegations of Russian interference in the run-up to the European elections in June (‘Russiagate’), which also cast a shadow over the German far right (see EUROPE 13389/14). The case involving China is also expected to be mentioned. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion with Isalia Stieffatre)