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According to reports, the Chinese tech giant might have bribed former or current MEPs in Brussels. There have been no searches at the European Parliament so far.
ADVERTISEMENTBelgian police searched the Brussels headquarters of Chinese tech company Huawei and several homes in the country in a fresh corruption probe, reports say. The information was revealed by investigative website Follow the Money, together with two other Belgian newspapers, Le Soir and Knack. According to those reports, the lobbyists of the Chinese tech giant paid bribes to MEPs to influence EU decision-making. Sources told the newspapers that around 15 current and former MEPs might be involved in the case. Police searched 21 homes this morning in Brussels, Belgium’s regions of Flanders and Wallonia, and Portugal as a part of a covert operation. They sought evidence of possible crime, including bribery, forgery, money laundering and criminal organisation. The authorities also confiscated documents and electronic devices, according to reports.No searches at European Parliament so arAccording to the information published Thursday morning, a 41-year-old lobbyist, Valerio Ottati, is at the centre of the ongoing investigation. He joined the Chinese company six years ago. Before that, he worked for Italian MEPs involved in the parliament’s China dossiers. If the investigation concerns current members of the European Parliament, the Belgian authorities will ask the Parliament to waive their immunity. “The European Parliament takes note of the information. When requested, it always cooperates fully with the judicial authorities,” a spokesperson of the European Parliament said. Euronews understands that so far, there have been no searches on the premises of the Parliament, and the Belgian prosecutors have not sent any requests yet to waive any immunity. Nevertheless, the new scandal might be disastrous for the reputation of the institution. The European Parliament strengthened its ethics and transparency rules after the so-called Qatargate scandal. The members of the corruption network — with MEPs involved — discovered in 2022 accepted cash and other benefits from the Gulf state in exchange for influencing EU decisions. Since then, far-right and Eurosceptic politicians have commonly mentioned the case to paint the Parliament and EU as corrupt. Euronews has reached out to Huawei for comment.
