Huawei corruption scandal shows EU has learned no lessons on ethics rules

Belgian authorities have today raided offices of Huawei and European parliamentarians. They suspect bribes were paid to around 15 current and former MEPs, including gifts of football tickets, luxury trips to China, and possibly cash. According to the investigation by Follow the Money, Knack and Le Soir, these were given in exchange for defending Huawei's lobby positions. The Chinese tech giant has been under extreme pressure in Europe over concerns its products – particularly 5G – could offer a backdoor for Chinese state surveillance. 

While eyes are on Huawei and the Chinese state, CEO has long warned that the failure of the European institutions to properly defend democracy from undue influence is a systemic, ongoing scandal that has remained under the radar. 

As Corporate Europe Observatory, we believe that right now the EU institutions' inaction is Exhibit A in how NOT to prevent a scandal! They have apparently learned no lessons since Qatargate – with the ongoing and systemic failures of lobby monitoring, transparency, and ethics enforcement (including regarding MEP gifts and conflicts of interest). Indeed the rightwing majority in the European Parliament is currently trying to actually turn back transparency measures.

The EU needs to consolidate and speed up implementation of the ethics body that was agreed after the Qatargate scandal, but not yet implemented. It also must ensure proper enforcement of online disclosure of MEP lobby meetings. Astonishingly, the rightwing EPP group of MEPs has been preparing to get rid of both of these reforms, with support of the far right.

Meanwhile, we already have a Transparency Register at the EU level that repressive regime lobbyists easily bypass because it is weak, voluntary, and poorly enforced (see our previous case studies on, eg China, Saudi Arabia, or UAE).  The upcoming June 2025 review of the EU Lobby Register presents an urgent opportunity to introduce long overdue legally-binding rules, ensuring transparency and accountability in Brussels’ corridors of power, with meaningful sanctions for infractions. 

ENDS

For media inquiries please contact: 

Marcella Via, Corporate Europe Observatory Press Officer

media@corporateeurope.org ; +39 3484201435

Notes to editors:

1. Huawei is one of the EU's top big tech lobbyists. Its lobby budget for 2023 was between €2,000,0000 - €2,249,999 according to its most recent declaration, with 11 full time lobbyists and 76 meetings with high level Commission officials. Lobbyfacts summarises Huawei's lobby declaration here. 

2. CEO's previous coverage on Huawei: a recent piece on its role as a Big Tech lobbyist regarding the EU's AI Act; and a 2019 deep dive into China's lobbying of the EU, which includes an overview of Huawei's activities. 

3. The EPP has not only rejected better transparency after Qatargate, it has opportunistically stepped up attacks on NGOs, in part by implying they are vehicles for foreign influence. Yet CEO's research shows repressive regimes have primarily made use of lobby consultancy firms, as well as PR firms, law firms and think-tanks for their influencing efforts; only 1 front group NGO out of 128 lobby vehicles surfaced in our investigations during over a decade of case studies into repressive regime influence. Effective lobby transparency measures should address all intermediaries used by foreign governments.