Key points
- EU says fully cooperating with the Belgian authorities
- Suspects accused of “active corruption” in EU Parliament
- European Commission says lobbyists barred from accessing offices
ISLAMABAD: The European Parliament said Friday it has barred Huawei representatives from its premises, a day after police made a series of arrests in a probe into suspected corruption on behalf of the Chinese tech giant.
Police have arrested several people as part of a corruption probe targeting the European Parliament and Chinese tech company Huawei, Belgian authorities have said.
According to Al Jazeera, the suspects, who are alleged to have been involved in “active corruption” within the European Parliament to benefit Huawei, were arrested following searches at 21 premises in Belgium and Portugal, Belgium’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement on Thursday.
Later, a spokesperson for the European Commission said Huawei lobbyists have also been barred from accessing its offices.
Huawei has nine representatives accredited to the parliament, according to the EU transparency register.
“Commercial lobbying”
“The corruption is said to have been practised regularly and very discreetly from 2021 to the present day, under the guise of commercial lobbying and taking various forms, such as remuneration for taking political positions or excessive gifts such as food and travel expenses or regular invitations to football matches,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Thursday’s raids came less than two years after the “Qatargate” scandal, in which EU lawmakers were accused of being paid to promote the interests of Qatar and Morocco — something both countries deny.
Transparency campaigners, who have accused the EU parliament of resisting reform after the 2022 scandal, called on it to immediately investigate the latest claims, according to AFP.
The parliament has said it is fully cooperating with the Belgian authorities.
Huawei declined to comment on the access ban, referring to an earlier statement where the firm said it takes the graft allegations “seriously” and would “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,” the company said Friday.
Seals and denials
Belgian prosecutors said the alleged corruption dated from 2021 to the present and took “various forms”.
These included “remuneration for taking political positions or excessive gifts such as food and travel expenses or regular invitations to football matches” as part of a bid to promote “purely private commercial interests” in political decisions.
According to AFP, the alleged kickbacks were concealed as conference expenses and paid to various intermediaries.
Belgian authorities did not disclose the exact number of arrests, nor the identity of those held.
On Thursday, seals were placed on the doors of several offices used by parliamentary assistants in Brussels and Strasbourg.
Among them were offices used by the staff of lawmakers with Italy’s Forza Italia party.
The party, which belongs to the EU parliament centre-right EPP group, said it was cooperating with authorities, adding its staff did not receive “any benefits”, let alone invites to China or “stadium events”.
EU’s crosshairs
Franc Bogovic, a former Slovenian lawmaker cited in several reports on the probe, also denied wrongdoing, telling local media he had been invited to conferences by the Chinese firm and participated in an internet project but did not do anything illegal.
At the heart of the alleged corruption is a former parliamentary assistant who was employed as Huawei’s EU public affairs director, Belgian media said.
Huawei has been in the EU’s crosshairs in recent years.
Brussels in 2023 described the telecoms giant as a higher risk to the bloc than other 5G suppliers and called on EU states to exclude its equipment from their mobile networks.
Since 2019, US sanctions have cut off Huawei from global supply chains for technology and US-made components, a move that initially hammered its production of smartphones.
