Parliament Waives Immunity Of Austrian MEP Hans-Peter Martin

MEPs voted on Tuesday to waive the parliamentary immunity of Hans-Peter Martin. This followed a request by the Austrian prosecutors in connection with allegations that Mr Martin breached national political party funding rules and misled Austria´s auditing authorities. The allegations relate to the period of the European election campaign, between 2008 and 2009.

Parliament voted by a show of hands to waive Mr Martin`s immunity, thus enabling the Austrian authorities to conduct investigations and take legal action.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Vienna wrote to the European Parliament on 29 April 2011 formally requesting the waiver of Hans-Peter Martin`s immunity. He is accused of having misused Austrian public funds allocated to his party (the “Liste Martin”) for the period of the European election campaign, between 2008 and 2009.

It is alleged that public funds were “used to finance private expenditure and settled inflated invoices submitted to him by friends or business associates”. He is also accused of “having misled the auditors responsible for scrutinising the use of funds by submitting ‘fictitious documents’ to justify the lawfulness of the accounting and/or the legal basis for the use of funds”, according to the text approved on Tuesday.