Huawei defends its innocence in European Parliament corruption case

Chinese telecommunications company Huawei has made statements to the press on Friday after being plunged into a corruption scandal at the heart of the European Union. A day earlier, the Belgian Prosecutor's Office had revealed an anti-corruption operation in Belgium and Portugal, targeting the tech firm over irregular lobbying in the European Parliament.

A Belgian police operation conducted raids at around 20 locations in Belgium and Portugal on Thursday. Several individuals were also arrested and brought before the court in connection with the corruption case.

Along with Huawei, the focus of the investigation is on a group of lobbyists who worked for the company, as well as on a group of parliamentarians and former European parliamentarians.

Chinese tech giant Huawei defended on Friday its "zero tolerance" for corruption and promised to "urgently" contact those responsible for the investigation into alleged payments and gifts from the firm to members of the European Parliament.

"Huawei takes these allegations very seriously and will urgently communicate with the investigation to better understand the situation," a spokesman for the Chinese tech firm told AFP.

According to the investigation, which also has the journalistic follow-up of several Belgian media outlets, the Chinese company's lobbyists made donations and gifts in extraordinary ways to several members of the European Parliament. Le Soir cited invitations to soccer matches as well as transfers.

The European Parliament's rules of procedure oblige its lawmakers to declare any donation from a third party exceeding €150 ($161) in value or amount.

Parliament "received a request to cooperate with the investigations, which it will honor promptly and fully," the source added. However, the prosecutor's office said that judicial agents sealed the offices of two parliamentary advisors at the headquarters of the European legislature.

According to the Dutch investigative site Follow the Money the investigations are focusing on some 15 former MEPs. Citing an unnamed source, Follow the Money claims that one or more MEPs received improper payments through a company based in Portugal.

The Portuguese federal prosecutor's office confirmed the operations in that country "in the framework of a European investigation, at the request of the Belgian authorities."

Three years after Qatargate

In 2022, the European Parliament was rocked by a huge scandal of influence peddling for the benefit of Qatar and possibly Morocco, in a case dubbed "Qatargate."

That scandal included the discovery of suitcases loaded with cash, and prompted drastic changes in the European Parliament's treatment of lobbying firms.

Nicholas Aiossa, director of the NGO Transparency International EU warned that the new allegations "are as widespread and serious as those of Qatargate."

"For too long, MEPs have taken a blithe approach to ethics and continue to exist in a culture of impunity," he added.