MPs will probably lose immunity in Huawei's corruption scandal

On May 21, 2025, the President of the European Parliament announced that the Belgian authorities had applied for the immunity waiver for five members of the European Parliament. The MPs, whose immunities are now challenged, are Fulvio Martusciello, Giisi Princi, Daniel Attard, Nikola Mincchev and Salvatore de Meo. Their immunities were asked to be dispensed with in connection with the Huawei cash-for-influz scandal. The procedure that ends in suspending the immunities of the MEPs usually takes months. First, the committee for legal matters of the EP checks the inquiries, then it coordinates the matter, while the final judgment depends on a vote in the plenum.

Since March of this year, the Belgian authorities have been investigating certain members of the European Parliament because of their possible accomplice in Huawei's programs to influence the EU's co-legizer. News broke for the first time over the scandal when the police carried out 21 search queries in Belgium and Portugal. It is believed that some MPs have accepted payments, gifts and other forms of remuneration in order to take certain political positions that were favorable for the Chinese technology giants. The investigation of the Belgian authorities covers the period between 2021 and 2024, which concerns both the 9th (2019–2024) and the current (2024–2029) parliament. As part of the investigations, the offices of some parliamentary assistants were sealed.

“It is believed that some MPs have accepted payments, gifts and other forms of remuneration”

Some Huawei lobbyists have already been arrested for suspicion to bribe current and former MPs to promote the company's trade guidelines. As Hungarian conservative One of the main suspects is Valerio Ottati, who was director of public affairs for the Huawei EU office. Previously, Ottati worked in the European Parliament as a parliamentary assistant to an Italian EPP and an Italian S&D member. Due to the participation of Huawei lobbyists in the scandal since March, both the European Parliament and the Huawei Commission have banned direct lobbying to the EU. From May 2025, eight people were charged with regard to the Huawei probe.

Days before Roberta Metsola officially announced, MPs Attard, Mingev and de Meo had already announced to the public that their immunities had been requested by the responsible authorities. All MPs contested any misconduct and expressed the willingness to work with the national authorities in order to prove their innocence.

Daniel Attard is a Maltese socialist (S&D) from Partit Laburista. In his case, Attard claimed that questions about his participation in a soccer game of the Europa League had been raised – he claimed that he initially did not know that the corporate tickets in which he participated were actually made available by Huawei. Similar to Attard, Nikola Mintchev is also examined Euronews. According to the Bulgarian MEP authorities, you just want to check whether it was involved in something inappropriate. Mintchev is a Bulgarian MP from which we prior word The Maite – Democratic Bulgaria Party (connected with Renew Europe).

Mintchev, who was elected to the EP last summer, previously explained that the tickets had been obtained from a person with indirect connections to Huawei. In fact, the Minchev's assistant Adam Mouchtar's office was one of the offices that the police had attacked in mid -March. Shortly after the RAID MINCHEV exposed his assistant Mouchtar, whose name also appeared in news about EU40, a networking group for MPs under the direction of Eva Kaili, a main suspect in Qatargate scandal.