Europarlementariër Brok behoudt immuniteit in Duitse belastingzaak (en)
EUOBSERVER i / BRUSSELS - MEPs in the legal affairs committee on Monday (28 February) voted unanimously against a request by German prosecutors to lift the immunity of centre-right veteran euro-deputy Elmar Brok i in a tax blunder. Mr Brok maintains it was a one-off and he has already paid the €2,300 due six years ago.
"Our committee members voted unanimously, across the board, against lifting the immunity of Mr Brok," Klaus-Heiner Lehne i, the chairman of the legal affairs committee told this website after the meeting which took place behind closed doors.
Mr Lehne said the case was "ridiculous" as it was a one-off blunder, not some kind of intentional tax evasion scheme. "I suspect they [the prosecutors] only did this because he is a public figure," Mr Lehne said in defence of his party colleague, a long-serving Christian Democrat MEP with a clean record so far.
Mr Brok's cabinet confirmed that it was a "singular mistake made in his annual tax declaration for 2005."
"The non-recurring payment of an honorarium for a speech is declared to the German tax authorities and the missing tax amount about €2,300 is paid," the cabinet said in an emailed statement.
Italian right-wing MEP Francesco Speroni i, tasked to write the Parliament's view on this matter, told this website that he will go ahead and submit an immunity waiver request to be voted by all 735 MEPs in an upcoming plenary session.
"I cannot comment on the result of the vote, this is confidential," he insisted.
A member of the EU legislature since 1980 and seen as a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel i, the 64-year old German is a respected foreign affairs expert and played a key role in the negotiations of several EU treaties, including the last one known as the Lisbon Treaty.