The way is open for lifting the immunity of the New Democracy MEP. Maria Spirakiand also at yesterday’s private meeting Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (JURI)According to the information, the corresponding recommendation was approved, and the vote is expected next week, at the plenary meeting.

At the same time, at the same meeting of the commission, the case of the now independent member of the European Parliament was discussed for the first time. Alexis Georgoulis.

Process

The procedure for lifting the immunity of MEPs in most cases takes a long time, because, according to the relevant Regulations (Art. 6 and Art. 9), after the announcement of the request for lifting immunity from a MEP at the plenary session, they are transferred to the Committee on Legal Affairs of the European Parliament (JURI), which appoints a rapporteur to prepare the relevant file, while its members may be asked for any information deemed necessary.

Once the recommendation is approved by the committee, a simple majority vote is taken in the plenary meeting during its next session, as will be done in the case of Maria Spirakis. The rapporteur’s text is expected to be read in plenary, detailing the reason for the request to lift immunity.

A leak

However, in the case of the New Democracy MEP, details of the case were recently leaked to Politico as her case is in the same European Prosecutor’s Office case as Eva Kylie’s case, which however concerns European Union budget fraud and is not related to Qatargate.

As for Maria Spirakis, the report says that she is accused of misleading the European Parliament about the activities of her associates and violations regarding their “virtual trips”, but there is no evidence that she received salary bribes or false compensation. Same with “K” she reiterated that she is now waiting for the immunity to be lifted in order to finally close the case within the next months, as she has already paid the amount of 21,240 euros, so there is no difference between the budget of her office and the European Parliament for the disputed period 2016-2020.

He asked for speed

As for independent MEP Alexis Georgoulis, it has not yet been announced when the discussion in the JURI committee will continue, as reports indicate that his case may not be on the agenda of its next meeting at the end of the month. Recall that Alexis Georgoulis petitioned to expedite the removal of immunity from him, since for this reason his lawyers do not yet have access to the case file. The petition for waiver of immunity, filed by the Belgian authorities in April, concerns an investigation against him for “serious criminal offences”.