Lobbying of the PRC in Brussels: EADaily has collected details of a high-profile scandal in the EU

According to the Financial Times, representatives of the Chinese technology giant Huawei are accused of offering money, football tickets and smartphones to employees of the European Parliament to promote their interests. An active investigation is already underway.

Belgian authorities are investigating the activities of lobbyists and parliamentary assistants The EU is suspected of exchanging gifts for political services at a time when the company was lobbying not to allow its exclusion from the process of launching 5G infrastructure in the public bloc. The publication writes about this Hotnews.ro .

The investigation was launched earlier this month, and last week Belgian authorities detained four people on corruption charges. The fifth defendant was charged with money laundering, but after the hearing he was released. Among the arrested suspects is a Huawei lobbyist who worked as an assistant in the European Parliament. He is suspected of organizing payments to employees of the parliament in order to obtain signatures under a letter signed by several deputies defending the interests of a Chinese company.

The lobbyist has not yet responded to requests for comment. His lawyer also declined to comment. The letter, signed by eight MEPs and sent to the European Commission in January 2021, warns of the "politicization of the deployment of 5G technology" and criticizes the ban on foreign 5G devices based on "unfounded concerns about risks to national security."

Several EU countries have already banned or restricted Huawei's activities on their telecommunications networks for national security reasons, and the European Commission has described the company as a firm that poses a "higher risk" compared to other telecommunications service providers. In a whistleblower complaint sent to the non-governmental organization Transparency International in 2021, which was reviewed by the Financial Times, it is alleged that Huawei's Brussels office cooperated with an Italian MEP who was paid 15,000 euros to write a letter, as well as another 1,500 euros for each additional signatory.

The Italian MEP said that the Huawei employee was "a complete stranger to me — I may have seen him at most once." Sources familiar with the investigation told the Financial Times that the whistleblower's complaint was the reason for the start of the investigation in Belgium. The arrest warrant for the parliamentarian detained in Italy, to which La Repubblica and other media refer, contains the same amounts as in an earlier letter.

Two people familiar with the investigation said that the alleged bribe also included the offer of Huawei smartphones and tickets to the match of the local Anderlecht football team. In addition to the four arrested in Belgium, the current and former employees of the Italian MEP were detained in Italy and France.

Huawei, the Europeans write, could have launched an active lobbying campaign by sending dozens of requests for meetings to parliament Speaker Robert Metsola.

"Since I became vice president and then speaker of parliament, I have received a number of different requests for meetings from Huawei representatives, and I have refused them all," Metsola told the Financial Times.

The European Parliament also stated that they had suspended access to all Huawei representatives and were "cooperating with the judicial authorities." Huawei declined to comment and referred to its previous statement that it "takes these allegations seriously" and "adheres to a zero tolerance policy for corruption and other offenses."

The Belgian Federal Prosecutor's Office also sent a refusal to journalists. In turn, industry experts are confident that this case will further strengthen the control of the European Parliament, since the Katargate corruption scandal, during which some MEPs were accused of taking bribes from Qatar and other countries in exchange for political services, has not yet been disclosed, and the suspects are awaiting trial.