STRASBOURG ― The European Parliament on Tuesday voted in favor of lifting the immunity of Italian center-right lawmaker Fulvio Martusciello, permitting Belgian authorities to investigate bribery allegations involving Chinese tech firm Huawei.
Ahead of the vote, which took place by secret ballot, Martusciello lobbied MEPs with a document, seen by POLITICO, denouncing what he said was the “carelessness” and “superficiality” of the prosecutor’s allegations. The lawmaker said that the bank transfers Belgian prosecutors allege came from Huawei were actually repayments of a loan he had made to a friend. He denied any wrongdoing.
In March 2025, the Belgian Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation looking into “active corruption, forgery of documents, money laundering at the European Parliament.” It said the “alleged bribery” would have benefited Huawei. The Chinese tech firm denies the accusations.
The Parliament voted for three other MEPs ― Maltese Socialist Daniel Attard, Italian EPP lawmaker Salvatore De Meo and Bulgarian Renew MEP Nikola Minchev ― to keep their immunity. Lawmakers adhered to the recommendation of the Parliament’s legal affairs committee, which argued that the Belgian authorities had not provided sufficient evidence to justify an investigation into those MEPs.
The vote took place as lawmakers expressed irritation with Belgian authorities over what they see as blunders in the Huawei probe — including wrongly attributing actions to an MEP after mistaking him for a businessman with the same name, and seeking to lift another lawmaker’s immunity before realizing she was not an MEP when the alleged conduct occurred.
