Star Metro - Huawei probe blunder sparks EU parliament rules change

It soon turned out she had nothing to do with it -- in a mix-up that has undermined confidence in the probe and pushed the European Parliament to review its rules to better shield lawmakers from unfounded accusations.

"To this day I cannot understand how they could have made such a blatant mistake," Princi told AFP of Belgian prosecutors.

The Brussels prosecutor office did not reply to a request for comment.

Princi, 52, a member of late Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, was targeted by a request to lift her parliamentary immunity in mid-May, along with four other lawmakers.

Prosecutors alleged she attended a Brussels dinner with Huawei representatives seeking to curry favour among parliamentarians in June last year.

But on the day in question the Italian politician was yet to be formally appointed to the 27-nation bloc's assembly following European elections that month. She secured a seat only after another lawmaker renounced his.

Also, she was not in Belgium but in her native southern Calabria region, attending her daughter's Alice-in-Wonderland-themed end-of-year school play.

- No more 'tarnishing' -

Describing herself as "stubborn and pig-headed", Princi lawyered up, compiled an "almost 100-page long" dossier including geo-tagged photos of her daughter in a princess dress, and sent it to prosecutors.

Yet, her bid to get exonerated before things became public failed.

On May 21 EU parliament president Roberta Metsola named Princi among lawmakers targeted by authorities before a plenary sitting.

That was a step required by parliamentary procedure before the case could be passed to the committee on legal affairs, which is tasked to assess immunity waivers.

But the rules have since been revised, for, in an embarrassing about-face, prosecutors withdrew the request targeting Princi a day after she was publicly named.

"I will not accept the targeting and tarnishing of MEPs without a solid basis," Metsola told a press conference in late June, announcing the changes.

Her office said that going forward parliament will require requests to lift a lawmaker's immunity to include "essential elements" such as a clear description of the facts and the crime the accused is alleged to have committed.

"If the requests do not meet the minimum elements, the requesting authority will be asked to complement it" before any announcement is made, Metsola's office said.

Although brief, Princi said her involvement in the affair caused her a fair amount of stress during a few "days of hell" -- and dirty looks from colleagues.

- 'Question marks' -

The fiasco has fuelled a debate on whether Belgian authorities are best placed to investigate EU corruption.

Daniel Freund, a transparency campaigner turned lawmaker for Europe's Greens, is among those who would like the European Public Prosecutor's Office, which already probes the misuse of EU funds, to be tasked with such cases.

"I guess the Belgian taxpayer doesn't have a particular interest to dedicate a lot of resources to making sure that EU institutions are clean. But since EU institutions are located in Belgium, it somehow falls into their remit," he told AFP.

An earlier scandal over alleged bribery involving Qatar and Morocco, which erupted in 2022 when police raids in Brussels uncovered 1.5 million euros in cash at the homes of several lawmakers, is still weighed down in legal challenges with no trial in sight.

Were that to collapse, it "would seriously put into question the role of the Belgian judiciary," Freund said, adding "some question marks" also hung over the Huawei probe.

The Huawei scandal burst into the public in March when police staged raids in Belgium and Portugal.

Investigators suspect Huawei lobbyists of offering gifts, including meals and invitations to football matches to lawmakers who would defend its interests in Brussels.

Eight people have been charged on counts including corruption, money laundering and participating in a criminal organisation.

The four EU lawmakers named besides Princi have denied any wrongdoing.

A.Bergeron--SMC