Corruption scandal in the EU Parliament: arrests after lobbying allegations!

Corruption scandal in the EU Parliament: arrests after lobbying allegations!

A huge corruption scandal is shaking the European Parliament! Extensive raids took place in Brussels and Portugal on Thursday, with police carrying out a total of 21 house searches. Several suspects were provisionally arrested; An investigation into bribery and suspected money laundering is already underway crown reported. According to the reports, the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is suspected of being behind the attempted influence, which is said to have taken place under the guise of lobbying since 2021.

According to the investigation, the accused could be members of parliament as well as other parliamentary staff. The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgium said that false remuneration for political statements and inappropriate gifts such as invitations to football games and restaurant visits were paid under the pretext of lobbying. There is also suspicion of bribing middlemen to finance conferences. This causes trust in the integrity of Parliament to waver, which above all contributes to the distrust of Chinese technology in the Western mobile phone market, as critics fear possible influence by the Chinese government, such as Mirror highlights.

The seized documents and items must now be analyzed, which could further prolong the investigation. The speaker of the EU Parliament stated that they were cooperating fully with the authorities to resolve the allegations quickly and comprehensively. Parliament itself has so far been spared from direct searches, but the developments are certainly an alarming signal for the EU's overall institutional credibility.