A few days ago, Belgian federal prosecutors reported the arrests of several people in a corruption investigation linked to the European Parliament and the Chinese firm Huawei, which is suspected of bribing European Union legislators.
These arrests came as an inquiry by Le Soir newspaper and other media revealed lobbyists working for the Chinese company were alleged to have bribed present or former European Parliament members to advance the company’s commercial approaches in Europe. The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the alleged bribery “is said to have benefited Huawei.”
Nearly 100 federal police officials conducted 21 search operations in Brussels, the Flanders and Wallonia regions, and Portugal. In addition, the investigating magistrate has also asked for seals to be put on offices inside the EU Parliament assigned to two parliamentary assistants allegedly engaged.
Prosecutors declared one individual was apprehended in France. The person would be asked over “alleged involvement in active corruption within the European Parliament, as well as for forgery and use of forgeries,” prosecutors said. “The offences were allegedly committed by a criminal organization.”
How did Belgian prosecutors uncover the bribery scheme?
The prosecutor’s office further said it suspected there was corruption “from 2021 to the present day” based on a variety of factors, “such as remuneration for taking political positions or excessive gifts such as food and travel expenses or regular invitations to football matches.”
Prosecutors have also suggested that payments might have been concealed as business costs and, in some cases, directed toward third parties. They stated they would additionally attempt to “detect any evidence of money laundering.” Police confiscated several documents and entities during the searches. The EU Parliament has been the victim of a second corruption case in less than three years.
In an investigation by Follow The Money, an investigative journalism platform, one of the primary suspects in the investigation is 41-year-old Valerio Ottati, a Belgian-Italian lobbyist who has worked for Huawei since 2019. Following his appointment as Huawei’s EU public affairs director, Ottati was an assistant to two Italian MEPs who were both members of a European Parliament group focused on China policy, Follow the Money reported.
What has Huawei said about the allegations?
In response to the arrests, the company remarked that “Huawei takes these allegations seriously and will urgently communicate with the investigation to further understand the situation.” “Huawei has a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption or other wrongdoing, and we are committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations at all times,” it also said.
How is the EU Parliament and Commission responding to the scandal?
The European Parliament stated only that the assembly “takes note of the information” and “always cooperates fully with the judicial authorities.”
European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier stated the EU’s executive branch had no opinion about the investigation but stressed the commission’s security worries about Huawei and Europe’s fifth-generation mobile phone networks. “The security of our 5G networks is obviously crucial for our economy,” Regnier told reporters. “Huawei represents materially higher risks than other 5G suppliers.”
EU member states should swiftly “adopt decisions to restrict or to exclude Huawei from their 5G networks,” Regnier stated. “A lack of swift action would expose the EU as a whole to a clear risk.”
Furthermore, Huawei, a manufacturer of smartphones and the largest maker of networking gear for phone and internet carriers has been at the center of a trade war between the United States and China over trade and technology. Some European countries have followed the US’s lead and restricted Huawei’s hardware from next-generation mobile networks over suspicions that it poses a security risk that makes it easier for Chinese spying.
How does this compare to the Qatargate scandal?
The legislature was shaken by a corruption scandal in December 2022, in which Qatari officials were indicted for bribing EU officials to diminish labour rights concerns ahead of the football World Cup.
The scandal tarnished the prestige of the EU’s only institution composed of officials elected directly in the 27 member nations. It damaged the assembly’s claim to the moral high ground in its own investigations, such as into accusations of corruption in member nation Hungary.
MEP Daniel Freund, who oversaw the work of the assembly’s ethics body during the scandal, known as Qatargate, said the EU Parliament’s credibility is again under threat. “The risk of corruption in Brussels is high because the EU is so influential,” he said. “We need a complete investigation quickly, and finally reforms that will make the Parliament more resistant to corruption.”
