The leader of the eurosceptic Patriots for Europe group has called on fellow MEPs to establish a European Parliament committee of inquiry on transparency and accountability in the wake of recent corruption scandals including the ongoing investigation into alleged influence peddling involving Chinese tech giant Huawei.
In an email made public by Daniel Freund (Germany/Greens), Jordan Bardella claimed such a committee could address “allegations of corruption, money-laundering, abuse of power, undue interference in legislative processes” and other breaches of the rule of law in the EU institutions.
The call comes after the recent scandal which saw five people charged in a corruption probe linked to Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, suspected by Belgian prosecutors of bribing EU lawmakers to promote the company’s commercial policies in Europe.
Huawei said in a previous statement that it “maintains a zero-tolerance stance against corruption”, is “fully committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations”, and that it would “urgently communicate” with investigators.
In 2019 the Parliament was rocked by an ongoing scandal involving allegations that officials, lobbyists and their families were influenced by the governments of Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania, engaging in corruption and money laundering.
“EU institutions must operate with full transparency and accountability, and the rules of law should be upheld by all EU institutions and agencies,” Bardella’s said in his email.
Last month, Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally (NR) party in the French parliament, was found guilty by a Paris court of misappropriation of public funds and barred from running for office for five years “with immediate effect.” Bardella was elected NR president in 2022.
Lawmakers have until 23 April to sign up to Bardella’s initiative. It will be up to the Parliament, on a proposal from the Conference of Presidents – which consists of the leaders of the political groups – to decide whether to set up a committee and, if so, with how many members.
A cordon sanitaire has been in place through which centrist pro-European groups effectively work together to deny the right-wing groups top jobs such as presidencies or vice-presidencies of the Parliament’s committees.
As a result of the practice the Patriots failed to secure high level positions despite achieving good results at last June’s elections and becoming the Parliament’s third largest group.
Patriots for Europe have been contacted for a comment.
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