The European Parliament decided to waive the immunity of Dominique BILDE (ENF, FR).

To recall, the request for waiver of the immunity of Dominique Bilde was forwarded on 19 October 2018 by the Ministry of Justice of the French Republic on the basis of a request made by the Prosecutor-General at the Paris Court of Appeal in connection with a case pending before the Examining Magistrates pertaining to alleged offences of breach of trust, concealment of breach of trust, fraud by an organised group, forgery and the use of forged documents, and concealed work by concealment of employees, in relation to the employment conditions of assistants.

The Examining Magistrates have requested the waiver of the parliamentary immunity of Dominique Bilde in order to hear her in connection with alleged offences.

Parliament noted the following points:

- during a search conducted at the headquarters of the Front National in February 2016, a number of documents were seized in the office of the treasurer of the party, which bore witness to the party’s desire to make ‘savings’ through the European Parliament’s defrayal of the remuneration of employees of the party by virtue of their capacity as parliamentary assistants; at this stage in the investigation, it emerged that eight parliamentary assistants carried out virtually no parliamentary assistance work, or did so only as a very small proportion of their overall duties;

- it emerged that Dominique Bilde’s full-time parliamentary assistant from 1 October 2014 to 31 July 2015 was one of the assistants who carried out virtually no parliamentary assistance work; during the period covered by his contract as a parliamentary assistant, the said assistant also performed the following duties: Secretary-General of the Collectif Marianne , Secretary-General of the Collectif Mer et Francophonie and candidate in the March 2015 departmental elections in the department of Doubs;

- the European Parliament suspended payment of the parliamentary assistance expenses related to the contract of Dominique Bilde’s parliamentary assistant. Parliament found that there is no evidence of or any reason to suspect fumus persecutionis , i.e. a sufficiently serious and precise suspicion that the proceedings have been brought with the intention of causing the Member political damage.

The Committee on Legal Affairs adopted the report by Kostas CHRYSOGONOS (GUE/NGL, EL) on the request for waiver of the immunity of Dominique BILDE (ENF, FR).

The Examining Magistrates at the Paris Regional Court have requested the waiver of the parliamentary immunity of Dominique Bilde in order to hear her in connection with alleged criminal offences relating to breach of trust, concealment of breach of trust, fraud by an organised group, forgery and the use of forged documents, and concealed work by concealment of employees, in relation to the employment conditions of assistants of Members of the European Parliament affiliated to the Front National.

Members noted the following points:

- during a search conducted at the headquarters of the Front National in February 2016, a number of documents were seized in the office of the treasurer of the party, which bore witness to the party’s desire to make ‘savings’ through the European Parliament’s defrayal of the remuneration of employees of the party by virtue of their capacity as parliamentary assistants; at this stage in the investigation, it emerged that eight parliamentary assistants carried out virtually no parliamentary assistance work, or did so only as a very small proportion of their overall duties;

- it emerged that Dominique Bilde’s full-time parliamentary assistant from 1 October 2014 to 31 July 2015 was one of the assistants who carried out virtually no parliamentary assistance work; during the period covered by his contract as a parliamentary assistant, the said assistant also performed the following duties: Secretary-General of the Collectif Marianne , Secretary-General of the Collectif Mer et Francophonie and candidate in the March 2015 departmental elections in the department of Doubs;

- the European Parliament suspended payment of the parliamentary assistance expenses related to the contract of Dominique Bilde’s parliamentary assistant.

On the basis of these considerations and in view of the fact that there is no evidence of or any reason to suspect fumus persecutionis , the committee recommended that Parliament decide to waive the immunity of Dominique Bilde.