EU committee to discuss lifting Daniel Attard’s immunity
Belgian police are looking to have the immunity of four MEPs, including Attard, lifted
The European Parliament’s legal affairs committee on Tuesday is set to start discussing a request by Belgian police to lift the parliamentary immunity of four MEPs, including Daniel Attard. The request was made after they were named in a probe in which Huawei lobbyists are suspected of trying to influence parliamentarians.
Attard has professed his innocence, stating that he inadvertently met with a Huawei lobbyist while attending a football match at the invitation of his assistant. Upon being named in the probe, he also wrote to EP President Roberta Metsola requesting that his immunity be lifted so that he could clear his name.
The proceedings by the EU’s legal affairs committee, JURI, are expected to take several days.
Once the committee issues its recommendation, MEPs will have the final say through a vote in the plenary.
Lifting parliamentary immunity would allow police to question the MEPs and access documents and communication logs, which may shed more light on the issue.
The other three MEPs named in the probe are Salvatore De Meo, Fulvio Martusciello and Nikola Minchev.
A fifth MEP, Giusy Princi, was initially also subject to a similar request, only for Belgian police to drop the request after it emerged that she was in Italy (and not yet an MEP) at the time of her alleged meeting with a Huawei lobbyist.