STRASBOURG ― A Socialist lawmaker under investigation in connection with the “Qatargate” corruption scandal will not have her parliamentary immunity lifted after the European Parliament voted against the move. The decision means it will be more difficult for Belgian authorities to carry out certain parts of any investigation into Elisabetta Gualmini, such as questioning her or searching her home, or bringing her before court. The center-right European People’s Party and liberal Renew supported Gualmini’s Socialists and Democrats group in voting to keep her immunity. But the Parliament backed a request to lift the immunity of a second Italian Socialist MEP, Alessandra Moretti. The S&D wanted the legislature to maintain both immunities, arguing that the alleged wrongdoing claimed by Belgian prosecutors did not match the level of evidence provided in the immunity waiver request. BELGIAN RELIABILITY In the run-up to the vote, S&D lawmakers lobbied their colleagues in favor of Moretti. They also tried to gather enough support to call a secret vote on the immunities, according to The Left Co-Chair Manon Aubry. That would have allowed lawmakers to be more comfortable in breaking with party lines to try to shield Moretti from prosecution. “If the MEPs are not guilty, then let the justice do their job, and they are not going to be proved guilty with a proper judicial system,” Aubry said, in reaction to some EPP and S&D MEPs who questioned the reliability of Belgian prosecutors. “I don’t think we can compare the Belgium judicial system with the Hungarian one, for example.“ Qatargate is a scandal dating back to December 2022 that involves allegations that Qatar and other countries paid to influence lawmakers and officials at the European Parliament. Gualmini is accused of receiving help from other Qatargate suspects to get the job of S&D group vice chair and use it to manipulate discussions and decisions on Qatar within the group. Moretti is being investigated for allegedly receiving benefits in exchange for speaking favorably about Qatar, according to an internal note from the legal affairs committee seen by POLITICO. Both MEPs deny wrongdoing. Gualmini and Moretti did not reply to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the S&D did not reply to a request for comment. Gualmini’s immunity was maintained with 382 votes in favor, 254 against and 19 abstentions. Moretti’s was lifted with 497 votes in favor, 139 against and 15 abstentions.

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Brussels was jolted this week by dawn raids and an alleged fraud probe involving current and former senior EU diplomats. Host Sarah Wheaton speaks with Zoya Sheftalovich — a longtime Brussels Playbook editor who has just returned from Australia to begin her new role as POLITICO’s chief EU correspondent — and with Max Griera, our European Parliament reporter, to unpack what we know so far, what’s at stake for Ursula von der Leyen, and where the investigation may head next. Then, with Zoya staying in the studio, we’re joined by Senior Climate Correspondent Karl Mathiesen, Trade and Competition Editor Doug Busvine and Defense Editor Jan Cienski to take stock of the Commission’s first year — marked by this very bumpy week. We look at competitiveness, climate, defense and the fast-shifting global landscape — and our panel delivers its score for von der Leyen’s team.

The European Parliament’s legal affairs committee on Wednesday voted against lifting the immunity of an Italian Socialist lawmaker accused of being involved in the Qatargate scandal, on the grounds that Belgian prosecutors did not provide enough evidence. The committee did vote to lift the immunity of a second Italian Socialist MEP, according to three officials, granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations, as were others quoted in this piece. Both decisions need to be ratified by the entire Parliament at a plenary session on Dec. 15. The Socialists and Democrats group has maintained that the alleged wrongdoing claimed by Belgian prosecutors did not match the level of evidence provided in the immunity waiver request. The European People’s Party and Renew agreed with the S&D in the case of Elisabetta Gualmini, but decided the accusations against Alessandra Moretti were strong enough to lift her immunity.  The S&D group on Tuesday night lobbied other groups to protect both lawmakers, according to two officials, and called a secret vote to allow individual lawmakers to break party lines and shield Moretti. However, that push was in vain. Gualmini allegedly received help from other Qatargate suspects to get the job of S&D group vice chair and use her influence to manipulate discussions and decisions on Qatar within the group, while Moretti is being investigated for allegedly receiving benefits in exchange for speaking favorably about Qatar, according to an internal note from the legal affairs committee seen by POLITICO. Both MEPs deny wrongdoing. The S&D can still try to overturn the decision in plenary if they can convince enough MEPs to break ranks and shield Moretti. Gualmini and Moretti did not reply to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the S&D did not reply to a request for comment. PARLIAMENT VS. BELGIUM The Parliament has increasingly been wary of Belgian prosecutors, with MEPs arguing that police often do not provide enough evidence to justify their investigations.  Belgian authorities can be “a bit exaggerated,” argued an EPP MEP. “The relationship between Belgian prosecutors and the Parliament is in such a bad state,” argued a second centrist MEP. “Belgian authorities come too early with little evidence, while other prosecutors come later on in the process with tighter cases built.”  Although the Parliament is not concerned in this week’s fraud probe involving the EU’s foreign service, the scars from Qatargate and the Huawei cash-for-influence affair are still fresh. On Qatar, many MEPs are sore that, after three years of investigation, there is still no judgment. They’re afraid that the whole case could fall through at a hearing in December after the defendants challenged the legality of the proceedings.   On Huawei, resentment in Parliament flared up in May when Belgian prosecutors made headlines for asking that an MEP’s legal immunity be lifted over alleged bribery, only to withdraw the request hours later as the politician wasn’t in office at the time of the alleged wrongdoing. Lawmakers blasted the move as “sloppy.”  The authorities’ actions even prompted Parliament President Roberta Metsola to publicly call out Belgium — and other countries — for “tarnishing” MEPs’ reputations without “a solid basis.” In June, Metsola said Parliament would require a much higher standard of evidence for requests to lift immunity.  “A letter was sent to all permanent representations in September to remind them about the information that would need to accompany a request for immunity,” Metsola’s spokesperson, Jüri Laas, told POLITICO.  The constitutional affairs committee has started the process of reviewing the rules on lifting MEPs’ immunity to ensure a certain level of information is sent by prosecutors before the request can be made public in plenary, committee chair Sven Simon said Wednesday.

Eva Kaili, a former European Parliament vice president who was embroiled in the Qatargate corruption scandal, has weighed in on the fraud probe involving ex-EU top diplomat Federica Mogherini. Kaili said that Belgium is “not a safe place” for political figures, especially Italians. Speaking to La Stampa from Abu Dhabi, Kaili said she was “shocked” but hardly surprised at an investigation into whether a public tender awarded by the European External Action Service to a higher education institution to host the EU Diplomatic Academy was rigged in favor of the College of Europe. Mogherini, now rector of the college, and former foreign service chief Stefano Sannino were held for questioning as part of the probe and released from custody on Wednesday morning. Kaili, who is Greek, cast the probe as part of an “operation targeting Italy” that destroys political careers long before the facts are established, and puts the rule of law at risk. Kaili said she saw the fraud probe as a sequel to Qatargate. She drew explicit parallels between her experience and Mogherini’s brief detention, insisting Qatargate was misconstrued from the outset. What prosecutors portrayed as illicit foreign influence, Kaili maintained, was routine parliamentary diplomacy backed by private NGO funding. Nearly three years later, she noted, no formal charges have been filed against her and much of the evidence remains “largely circumstantial.” Kaili served as an MEP from 2014 and as Parliament vice president from January 2022 until December 2022, when she was arrested on preliminary charges of corruption, money laundering and participation in a criminal organization as part of the Qatargate investigation into influence operations by foreign nations in Brussels.

The European Parliament will limit the access of journalists, lobbyists and diplomats to its premises starting next week. A colored badge, issued to outsiders, will no longer allow them to freely roam buildings in Brussels and Strasbourg. The new system is based on the Parliament’s calendar, where each week is marked with a color: red for plenary sessions, blue for political group meetings, pink for committee meetings, and white for quiet weeks during summer recess or Christmas break, Euronews reported. For example, during white weeks, those interested in visiting the Parliament buildings will only be allowed in if they have an invitation signed by an MEP. In Brussels such invitations will also be needed if an outsider wants to visit a building other than the main Altiero Spinelli and József Antall blocks, regardless of what week it is. In Strasbourg invitations will be required to access premises outside plenary sessions or to enter the area where lawmakers’ offices are located. “The changes introduced to the rules … are part of a broader reform aligning with Parliament’s commitment to ensure transparency, accountability, and public trust,” the institution told Euronews. The rules will take effect Sept. 1. Several lobbyists have complained the rules will be counterproductive, and that they will tend to target small NGOs rather than large corporations. “Who loses the most? Grassroots organizations, NGOs and independent experts, the very voices that already face structural disadvantages compared to well-funded corporate lobbies,” said Isabella Sofia De Gregorio, executive director of EDUXO Italia, a non-profit educational association, in a post on LinkedIn. The founder of consultancy UNGovern, Jakub Zientala, called the move “another bureaucratic hurdle in Brussels.” “One more barrier for transparent dialogue between policymakers and stakeholders. Instead of encouraging openness, the Parliament adds layers of bureaucracy that mainly hurt smaller organizations, NGOs, and independent experts — the very voices that struggle most to be heard,” Zientala said. The rules are the latest response to scandals like Qatargate and Huaweigate, which have rocked the European Parliament in recent years and have called its transparency and the influence of lobbyists on MEPs into question. In May the Parliament made it mandatory for lobbyists to activate their badges on every visit and to state the purpose of that visit. The European Parliament did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.

The European Union’s General Court ruled Wednesday in favor of former MEP Eva Kaili, annulling the European Parliament’s decision to block her access to documents about suspected misuse of parliamentary assistant allowances. Kaili — also a key suspect in the EU’s long-running Qatargate corruption scandal — had requested the documents under the EU’s transparency regulation, but in July 2023 the Parliament rejected her request citing concerns that the disclosure would interfere with ongoing legal proceedings. According to the General Court, the European Parliament wrongly applied an EU transparency rule to withhold documents, and rejected the institution’s arguments that releasing them would harm a related court case or violate legal fairness. “The requested documents … were not drawn up for the purposes of the proceedings … and do not contain internal positions of the Parliament relating to that case file,” the Court said. The court explained that the subject matter of the document Kaili requested is different from the subject matter of the case against her. “In those circumstances, access to the requested documents cannot be refused on the ground of the protection of court proceedings,” it said. Kaili, 46, served as a Greek MEP from 2014 and as Parliament vice president from January 2022 until December 2022, when she was arrested on preliminary charges of corruption, money laundering, and participation in a criminal organization as part of the Qatargate investigation into influence operations by foreign nations in Brussels. Days after her arrest, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) requested the lifting of her parliamentary immunity, based on a report from the the EU’s anti-fraud office (OLAF) relating to “suspicion of fraud detrimental to the EU budget,” over alleged irregularities in assistants’ salaries. In February 2023, Kaili appealed the immunity request. Her lawyer Spyros Pappas called the prosecutor’s action “unjustified,” arguing that the investigation had already been completed by OLAF and involved “facts dating back to past years.” In February last year, the European Parliament unanimously lifted Kaili’s immunity to allow the EPPO/OLAF prosecution to proceed.

Belgian authorities on Thursday withdrew a request to lift the immunity of European parliamentarian Giusi Princi relating to an investigation into a cash-for-influence scandal connected to Chinese firm Huawei. Thursday’s withdrawal came less than 24 hours after the request was announced by European Parliament President Roberta Metsola. Metsola had announced the request to lift immunity for Princi and four other MEPs ― Nikola Minchev, Daniel Attard, Fulvio Martusciello and Salvatore De Meo ― Wednesday afternoon. Metsola’s office confirmed that the immunity waiver request for Princi, a center-right Italian member of European Parliament, will be withdrawn, while the four others will be processed. “We are still waiting for the official documentation to arrive via the established official channels (Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs),” Metsola’s office said in a statement to POLITICO. “Once received, it will be processed swiftly,” the statement said, referring to the withdrawal request. Princi has previously disputed the reasons why Belgian police were seeking to investigate her, adding that she was in Italy at the time of the meeting she was accused of having participated in and had also not yet assumed her role as MEP. “The investigating judge has received new elements from the federal police which justify the pure and simple withdrawal of the aforementioned request for revocation of parliamentary immunity,” Princi said in an emailed statement Thursday afternoon. “I am relieved by the request for urgent revocation to confirm my total non-involvement in the so-called Huaweigate, although I am still shocked at having been involved on the basis of objectively non-existent elements,” she added. The move will surely add fuel to EU lawmakers’ frustration with Belgian authorities, which have failed to bring a conviction for the culprits of the Qatargate cash-for-influence scandal that rocked the European Parliament’s reputation in 2022. The Belgian prosecutor did not respond to a request for comment. Elisa Braun contributed to this report.

BRUSSELS ― The European Parliament has toughened its rules on lobbying more than two years after a cash-for-influence scandal that triggered one of the largest corruption investigations to hit the EU. From May 1, anyone entering the Parliament’s buildings to advocate on behalf of outside bodies has been forced to activate badges and register the purpose of their visit. The plan aims to keep tabs on who is talking to whom in the wake of what became known as “Qatargate” ― named after one of the countries linked to allegedly offering cash and gifts in return for favors. “After Qatargate, we thought transparency is important,” Marc Angel, the MEP overseeing internal administrative matters, told POLITICO. “Especially when it comes to interested representatives, be it from the business side or NGOs,” it’s important “that we can see who they meet and why they come into the Parliament.” With their official badges, lobbyists could previously enter the Parliament’s premises as they pleased, but now they’ll have to activate them every time they visit via a small terminal with badge readers at the entrances. That will require them to declare whether they are meeting an MEP or staff member or attending a parliamentary meeting or event taking place in the building, according to an email sent to all accredited lobbyists circulated last month. Once their badge is activated, they will be able to use it to proceed via security and the general doors. The information will be confidential and kept only by the security department. “In case there is an inquiry or a problem, there is a possibility to see who saw who, and get clarity and transparency,” Angel said. Lawmakers had already been required to register their meetings with lobbyists on the Parliament’s website. INTEGRITY, INDEPENDENCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY In December 2022, police launched a series of raids on properties and offices across Brussels, arrested suspects and seized bags of cash. The core allegations were that suspects linked to the Parliament had accepted money or gifts in exchange for doing the bidding of Qatar. Later it emerged that Morocco and Mauritania were also allegedly involved. “These changes are part of a wide-ranging reform package adopted by the European Parliament over the past years to strengthen its integrity, independence, and accountability, while protecting the free mandate of MEPs,” a spokesperson for the Parliament said. The move has drawn criticism from lobby groups, however, who see the additional checks as arduous with no good reason. The European Parliament has toughened its rules on lobbying. | Ronald Wittek/EPA The system “adds bureaucracy without benefit,” said Emma Brown, president of the Society of European Affairs Professionals. “Lobbyists are already thoroughly registered — daily activation and visit disclosures are a needless burden.” The measure, agreed on by the Parliament’s leadership in March 2024, will also affect former MEPs and general visitors. Sarah Wheaton contributed to this report.

Police authorities searched two offices belonging to several European Parliament political assistants in Strasbourg, two officials with knowledge of the matter told POLITICO. Police had previously sealed the offices on March 13, the same day that authorities raided more than 20 addresses in Belgium and Portugal as part of an investigation into corruption at the Parliament allegedly benefiting Huawei. Those offices have now been searched, the officials confirmed Thursday. One of the officials confirmed the search in Strasbourg was part of the investigation into Huawei’s lobbying practices. Parliament members and their assistants have offices at the institution’s premises in Brussels, where regular parliamentary activity takes place, as well as at the institution’s official seat in Strasbourg, France, where it holds its plenary sessions. Two offices in Brussels were already sealed and searched earlier this month and were handed back to their tenants. Belgian prosecutors are investigating whether Huawei made illegal payments to get an open letter written, signed by eight European parliamentarians, which defended the Chinese tech giant’s interests, according to judicial documents seen by POLITICO. Four people have been charged with corruption and criminal organization and one with money laundering, the Belgian prosecutor’s office said. One parliamentary assistant to Italian center-right MEP Fulvio Martusciello was arrested in Italy on March 20. The assistant in question has been suspended from employment by the Parliament, according to the institution’s press services. Martusciello’s office in 2021 led the effort to promote the letter that is under investigation. A spokesperson for Huawei said in a previous statement that the company “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.”

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music A lobbying frenzy, secret perks, and now police raids. Huawei’s cozy ties in Brussels have exploded into a full-blown corruption scandal. As the European Parliament tries to rehabilitate its image post Qatargate, lawmakers are once again at the center of allegations. With offices sealed and arrests made, there are serious questions about how deep Beijing’s influence really runs. Host Sarah Wheaton breaks it all down with POLITICO’s cybersecurity and intelligence reporter, Antoaneta Roussi, and Laurens Cerulus, POLITICO’s cybersecurity editor.  Meanwhile, over in Berlin, the Bundestag made a historic move:  voting to break from Germany’s long-standing fiscal conservatism. Get ready for unprecedented borrowing to bolster defense spending, aligning Germany with the EU’s broader defense initiatives. POLITICO’s Chris Lunday joins us from Berlin to explain what it means for Germany and Europe.