Five MEPs who signed a letter on 5G reported to be at the centre of a corruption probe have told Euronews they received no payments from Chinese tech firm Huawei.
MEPs who signed a 2021 letter on EU 5G policy that’s been linked to a probe investigating alleged corruption involving Chinese tech giant Huawei have told Euronews they received no payments or inducements to support the letter.
Last week, five people were charged in a corruption probe linked to Huawei, suspected by Belgian prosecutors of bribing EU lawmakers.
The Belgian Public Prosecutor’s office confirmed that four were charged with “active corruption and criminal organisation”, while a fifth person was charged with money laundering.
Italian daily La Repubblica has reported that Belgian prosecutors allege that a corrupt network active around the European Parliament paid MEPs to sign a letter criticising EU policy favouring the exclusion of Chinese and other foreign vendors from 5G networks in EU member states.
The letter at the centre of the allegations is dated 4 January 2021 and was sent to then-Executive Vice Presidents Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis and then-Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton. It argued that national authorities should not ban the use of foreign 5G devices—without naming Huawei—out of fear of national security risks.
Its signatories were eight MEPs: six from the European People’s Party (EPP) and two from the Socialists and Democrats (S&D). Three are no longer MEPs, Italian Giuseppe Ferrandino along with Romanians Ciuhodaru Tudor and Cristian-Silviu Busoi.
The remaining signatories are still MEPs, and all denied having received payments to sign the letter when asked by Euronews.
“I have never met with any representative, authority, or lobbyist from China, nor with any representatives of Huawei. Therefore, there can be no question of any pressure or promise of any kind,” MEP Daniel Buda told Euronews. “My endorsement of this letter was based on references to the necessity of broadband internet access in rural areas,” he said, pointing out that the technical details and methods for implementing broadband infrastructure are “beyond his area of expertise”.
“I don’t know anyone from Huawei, and I have never talked to anyone who works either directly or as a lobbyist for Huawei,” Italian MEP Herbert Dorfmann (EPP) told Euronews, denying any allegations of bribery.
Aldo Patriciello, another signatory, said he had never received pressure or remuneration from Huawei, nor met Huawei’s representatives, his office told Euronews.
MEP Giuseppe Milazzo, another of the signatories who is now with the European Conservatives and Reformists, declined to comment on the record to Euronews, but referred to a statement he had made to the Italian press agency ANSA.
“I have been offered neither money, nor gifts for any other type of favour directly or indirectly [from Huawei],” he told ANSA.
Buda, Dorfmann, and Patriciello (via his office) told Euronews that the letter was brought to their attention by colleague Fulvio Martusciello, whose parliamentary assistant, Lucia Simeone, was arrested in Italy last week and is suspected of having received 1,000 euros through the corruption scheme.
Reached by Euronews, Martusciello denied corruption, stating that he had not received “any promises or pressure to sign the letter”, adding that he had only fleetingly met Huawei lobbyists, and that he and his staff never attended the firm’s offices.
In 2021 the letter was flagged in an anonymous tip-off to Transparency International, a nonprofit and non-governmental association aimed at combating global corruption, Transparency’s Policy Officer for EU Political Integrity Shari Hinds confirmed to Euronews.
The association then reported it in 2022 to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), which decided not to follow up on the investigation, Hinds said, adding that the NGO had taken the tip-off “very seriously” since there had been similar cases in the past.
Hinds said the European Parliament currently lacks a “culture of integrity” with transparency standards insufficient to prevent wrongdoing and existing sanctions too weak to deter corruption.
