EP eyes tighter immunity waiver rules as committee reviews Daniel Attard request

The European Parliament plans to tighten its rules around lifting MEPs’ immunity, requiring the police to provide more detailed information when making a request, under new changes pushed by EP president Roberta Metsola.

Yesterday, Politico reported on Metsola’s plans to raise the bar for the police hoping to have an MEP’s immunity lifted, with the EP president telling reporters: “I will not accept the targeting and tarnishing of MEPs without a solid basis.”

Under current rules, any police request to waive an MEP’s immunity must automatically be considered and announced in plenary.

According to Politico, the new rules would require the police to present more detailed information, including the allegations faced by the MEP in question, before it is considered and announced in parliament. The news comes just days after the parliament’s legal affairs committee met to discuss the requests for the immunity of Daniel Attard and another three MEPs to be lifted.

The MEPs were named by the Belgian police in a bribery probe investigating whether Huawei lobbyists tried to influence parliamentarians with gifts, including football match tickets to Huawei’s private box at Anderlecht stadium.

All four MEPs have denied the accusations, with Attard saying he had attended a match at the stadium in September 2024 at the invite of his parliamentary assistant, without any knowledge that the invite originated from the Chinese tech giants. Upon being named in the probe, he wrote to Metsola asking for his immunity to be lifted to allow him to clear his name.

Lifting an MEP’s immunity allows the police to question them and their team, as well as to access relevant documents and communication logs

Lifting an MEP’s immunity allows the police to question them and their team, as well as to access relevant documents and communication logs.

Sources in Brussels told Times of Malta that the legal affairs committee now charged with reviewing the request for the four MEPs to have their immunity lifted is uncertain over whether to accept the requests.

At a meeting held on Tuesday, the committee is believed to have decided to ask the prosecutor for more information or even summon them to attend the next committee meeting, to substantiate the request before proceeding to a decision on the four MEPs.

A request to lift the immunity of a fifth MEP, Giusy Princi, was withdrawn by the Belgian police after it emerged she was not yet an MEP (and in Italy) at the time of her alleged meeting with a Huawei lobbyist.

Once the legal affairs committee reaches a decision, it will issue a recommendation over whether the police request should be accepted or not. The matter will then be taken to plenary, with all MEPs voting on whether the MEPs’ immunity should be lifted.