Five Eurodiputs signed a letter about 5G technology, supposedly at the center of a corruption investigation, told Euronews that they did not receive any payment from the Chinese technology company Huawei.
The Eurodiputados who signed the 2021 letter in the 5G European policy linked to an investigation into the alleged corruption that involved the Giant of Chinese technology Huawei to Euronews who have not received any payment or incentive to support the letter.
Last week, five people were accused in an investigation of corruption linked to Huawei, suspected by Belgian prosecutors to bribe EU legislators.
The Belgian prosecutor confirmed that four were accused of “active corruption and criminal organization”, while a fifth person was accused of washing capital.
The Italian newspaper The Republic He informed that Belgian prosecutors claim that a corrupt network is activated around the European Parliament paid to European deputies to sign a letter criticizing the EU policy that favors the exclusion of Chinese suppliers and other 5G foreigners in the EU member states.
The letter in the center of the accusations is dated January 4, 2021 and was sent to the then executive vice presidents Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis and the then commissioner of the National Market Thierry Breton. The document argues that national authorities should not prohibit the use of 5G foreign devices, without appointing Huawei, for fear of national security risks.
The proposal was signed by eight Eurosye: six of the European Popular Party (PPE) and two of the Socialist and Democratic Party (S&D). Three of them are no longer MEF, Italian Giuseppe Ferrandino and Romanians Ciuhodaru Tudor and Cristian-Silviu Busoi.
The remaining signatories remain MEF and everyone denied having received payments to sign the letter when Euronews questions it.
“I have never met any representative, authority or lobbyist from China, or with any Huawei representative. Therefore, there can be no pressure or promise,” said Meo Daniel Buddha to Euronews. “My support for this letter was based on references to the need for broadband Internet access in rural areas,” he said, and pointed out that technical details and broadband infrastructure implementation methods “exceed their area of specialization.”
“I don’t know anyone from Huawei and I never talked to anyone who worked directly or as a lobbyist for Huawei,” he told Euronews, the Italian meftepture Herbert Dorfmann (PPE), denying the accusations of bribes.
Aldo Patriciello, another of the signatories, said he never received pressures or compensation from Huawei, nor met with representatives of the company, according to his office to Euronews.
Meo Giuseppe Milazzo, another of the signatories who currently belong to the Conservative and European Reform Party, refused to comment on the issue of Euronews, but referred to a statement to the Italian news agency ANSA.
“They did not offer me money, without gifts or any other type of favor, directly or indirectly (from Huawei),” he told Ansa.
Buddha, Dorfmann and Patriciello (through his cabinet) told Euronews that the letter was presented to his knowledge by the colleague Fulvio Maradusciello, whose parliamentary assistant, Lucia Simeone, was arrested in Italy last week and is suspected that he received a thousand euros through the corruption scheme.
Contacted by Euronews, Marcusciello denied corruption, claiming that he received “no promise or pressure to sign the letter”, added that he only found fleeting with the lobbyists of Huawei and that he and his team never attended the company’s offices.
In 2021, the letter was marked in an anonymous report to international transparency, an association not of profit and non -governmental purposes aimed at combating global corruption, confirmed to Euronews Sharon Hinds, responsible for the policy of political integrity of the transparency of the EU.
ADVERTISINGThe association reported the fact in 2022 to the European body of Anti -Feacha (Olaf), who decided not to follow the investigation, said Shari Hinds, and added that the NGO took the complaint “very serious” since there were similar cases in the past.
Hinds declared that the European Parliament currently lacks a “culture of integrity”, that the transparency rules are insufficient to avoid irregularities and that existing sanctions are too weak to determine corruption.
