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.
According to the EU transparency register, Huawei has nine representatives accredited to the parliament’s buildings in Brussels and Strasbourg.
On Thursday, police carried out 21 coordinated raids in Belgium and Portugal and detained several people for questioning over “alleged involvement in active corruption within the European Parliament, as well as for forgery and use of forgeries”.
The EU parliament has said it is fully cooperating with the Belgian authorities.
Huawei meanwhile said it takes the 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 firm said in a statement.
Kick-back football tickets concealed as ‘conferences’
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.
The alleged kickbacks were concealed as conference expenses and paid to various intermediaries, the office said, adding it was looking at whether money laundering had also been involved.
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.
Viewed as ‘high risk’ by EU
Brussels in 2023 described the group as a higher risk to the bloc than other 5G suppliers and called on EU states to exclude its equipment from their mobile networks.
Huawei has found itself at the centre of an intense tech rivalry between Beijing and Washington, with US officials warning its equipment could be used to spy on behalf of Chinese authorities – allegations they deny.
Since 2019, US sanctions have cut Huawei off from global supply chains for technology and US-made components, a move that initially hammered its production of smartphones.
The probe into Huawei come 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.
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(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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