On Wednesday 21 May, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, announced the names of the five MEPs implicated in the alleged corruption case linked to the Chinese firm Huawei (see EUROPE 13599/8).
Three MEPs had already confirmed that they were concerned by the request to waive their immunity: Salvatore De Meo of the Italian EPP, Daniel Attard of the Maltese S&D and Nikola Minchev of the Bulgarian Renew Europe. All of them, like Huawei, claim not to have committed any wrongdoing.
Two new names have been added to the list: Fulvio Martusciello and Giusi Princi, both Italian members of the EPP. However, on Thursday afternoon, the Belgian public prosecutor's office withdrew the request to waive Giusi Princi's immunity, a fact confirmed by Roberta Metsola's office, according to the Politico media outlet.
The Belgian Public Prosecutor’s Office has officially requested that the parliamentary immunity of the four members be waived. The request will be forwarded to the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs, which is responsible for these issues.
The investigative website Follow The Money, which launched the enquiry, initially named around fifteen current and former MEPs as being suspected of having accepted “bribes” from the company.
Since then, the company’s lobbyists have been banned from the European Parliament and the European Commission. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)