Leading media outlets, including Politico, Euronews and Soar, are reporting on the corruption scandal involving lobbying in favour of the Chinese company Huawei, in which the name of Bulgarian MEP and former Speaker of the National Assembly Nikola Minchev from PP-DB was also involved.

This Thursday the Belgian authorities searched 20 addresses and sealed two offices in the European Parliament. One of them belongs to an associate of Minchev. The measures were taken as part of a growing investigation into bribery and lobbying in favour of Chinese tech giant Huawei in Europe.

Authorities are "investigating preliminary charges of active corruption, falsification of documents, money laundering in the European Parliament," a spokesman for the Belgian prosecutor's office said. The prosecutor there later added that the "alleged bribe" would benefit the Chinese company Huawei.

The European Parliament has come under intense scrutiny in recent years, especially after the Qatargate scandal, when the gas-rich Gulf state was accused of trying to influence Brussels and the European Parliament with bribes and gifts through intermediary organisations.

Nikola Minchev's assistant, whose office has been sealed, is named Adam Mukhtar. He is the co-founder of a group called EU40, whose chairman is Greek politician Eva Kyli, a key figure in the Qatargate corruption investigation.

Mukhtar denied to Politico that he had committed any wrongdoing. The other sealed office is that of an Italian conservative MEP.

The investigation into the Huawei-related irregularities has found a strong response in the media in Benelux, including the respected Soar publication, as well as the Dutch investigative news publication Follow The Money and Knack. Euronews also reported on the scandal.

They were the first to report that investigators had "targeted" around 15 former and current MEPs.

Victor Negrescu, EP vice-president for transparency and anti-corruption, said the allegations were "deeply worrying". A spokesman said the EP would cooperate with the investigation.

European Commission spokesman Thomas Grenier stressed that "Huawei poses a higher risk than other 5G providers". In doing so, he reminded that Europe has been trying to reduce its reliance on the Chinese 5G provider in recent years.

The news caused a stir in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, where this week's parliamentary session was held.

Dutch Liberal MEP Bart Grothhuis said he expected "a clear and categorical answer from the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola. The credibility of our institution is at stake, so there should be no 'ifs' or 'buts', but clear and decisive measures," he said.

Daniel Freund, a German member of the Greens group in the European Parliament, called for an investigation. "If there is any doubt, Huawei should be banned from leaving the premises for the duration of the investigation," he said. "We must finally stop treating incidents like this as minor offences. Corruption must be severely punished." I BGNES