Some fifteen MEPs are suspected of having accepted “bribes” from Huawei, the Chinese telephone and telecommunications giant, according to the Dutch news website Follow The Money, in an investigation published on Thursday 13 March.
Early this morning, the Belgian federal police announced that they had searched the offices and homes of Huawei lobbyists in Brussels and Portugal. At this stage, no searches have been carried out within Parliament.
“Today's new allegations of corruption against the European Parliament show that it has failed to learn significant lessons from its previous corruption scandals”, said Amnesty International, making reference to the Qatargate affair (see EUROPE 13082/1).
When questioned, the European Commission said it had no comment to make on the ongoing investigation and reiterated the “crucial importance” of the security of Europe's 5G communications network.
The European Commission deems Huawei to be a company with a “high risk” of espionage because of its proximity to the Chinese government.
In June 2023, the European Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, called on the EU27 to ban Huawei and ZTE from their mobile networks, a decision that was contested by the Chinese firm (see EUROPE 13202/3).
During her hearing at the European Parliament, the current Commissioner for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen, expressed her dissatisfaction with the extent to which member countries had implemented the “5G toolbox”, which recommended excluding Huawei from European networks. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)