MEPs suspected of having ties with the Russian Federation may lose their immunity

The investigation into Russian influence in the European Parliament is in full swing. Based on its results, a decision will be made to deprive some deputies of immunity.

About it reports Euronews, specifying that the European Parliament is awaiting information from national authorities. The publication refers to a statement by the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola. In a conversation with Euronews, she noted that so far she has not been given any names:

“We continue to wait for information from national authorities. Our reaction may be to lift the immunity enjoyed by members of our House. This will be necessary for the investigation. This has happened in the past when we received responses from states to our requests. We are waiting for this now And if that happens, we will do what we need to do, as always.”

Some members of parliament are accused of receiving money from a Kremlin-backed distribution network in EU Russian propaganda and distortion of the people's will in the upcoming elections. A similar scandal erupted in December 2022 when Metsola was informed that her deputy was Greek Eva Kylie participates in the scheme “money for services” associated with Qatar and Morocco. Metsola says:

“Then we had a choice. We could make an excuse by saying that this happens in any parliament. We could look at the involvement of political parties or countries in this. But I refused to do that. I said that our chamber needs to move on. “We made sure that if something like this happened again, we had defenses in place, and the alarm bells went off. It took a long time to figure out how to handle this.”

This week Metsola will hold its last plenary meeting in Strasbourg before the European Parliament elections, which will take place from June 6 to 9. There are 720 parliamentary seats to be filled. The President of the European Parliament says: “Now you have a choice. Either you decide who you want in parliamentary seats, or you let others decide for you.”

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