On the request for waiver of the immunity of Jana Nagyová

(2024/2035(IMM))

The European Parliament,

–having regard to the request for waiver of the immunity of Jana Nagyová, dated 1 July 2024 and submitted by the High Court in Prague in connection with criminal proceedings pending before that court, on appeal, under reference 3 To 34/2024, and announced in plenary on 19 July 2024,

–having heard Jana Nagyová on 29 January 2025 in accordance with Rule 9(6) of its Rules of Procedure,

–having regard to Articles 8 and 9 of Protocol No 7 on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Union, and Article 6(2) of the Act of 20 September 1976 concerning the election of the Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage,

–having regard to the judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 21 October 2008, 19 March 2010, 6 September 2011, 17 January 2013, 19 December 2019 and 5 July 2023,

–having regard to Article 27 of the Constitution of the Czech Republic and Section l0(1) of Act No 141/1961 Coll. on Criminal Procedure (the Czech Criminal Procedure Code),

–having regard to Rule 5(2), Rule 6(1) and Rule 9 of its Rules of Procedure,

–having regard to the report of the Committee on Legal Affairs (A10-0029/2025),

A.whereas on 1 July 2024 the High Court in Prague submitted a request for waiver of the parliamentary immunity of Jana Nagyová, a Member of the European Parliament elected in the Czech Republic, with a view to continuing criminal proceedings currently pending before it on appeal, concerning the charge of committing the offence of subsidy fraud pursuant to Section 212(1) and (6), point (a), and the offence of damage to the financial interests of the European Union pursuant to Section 260(1) and (5) of Act No 40/2009 Coll. (the Criminal Code of the Czech Republic);

B.whereas the criminal proceedings against Jana Nagyová are being conducted on the basis of the indictment of the Municipal State Prosecutor’s Office in Prague, dated 21 March 2022, for an act she allegedly committed jointly with a co-accused person, on the grounds that she, in her capacity as a person with a professional focus on EU grants and, in the period from 17 January 2008 to 5 January 2010, as vice-chair of the board of directors of a Czech company, applied for a grant knowing that that company was not entitled to it and providing false information that the company was a small enterprise and an independent enterprise;

C.whereas the purpose of parliamentary immunity is to protect Parliament and its Members from legal proceedings in relation to activities carried out in the performance of parliamentary duties and which cannot be separated from those duties;

D.whereas the alleged offences do not concern opinions expressed or votes cast in the performance of the duties of a Member of the European Parliament within the meaning of Article 8 of Protocol No 7 on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Union;

E.whereas Article 9, first paragraph, point (a), of Protocol No 7 on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Union provides that Members of the European Parliament enjoy, in the territory of their own State, the immunities accorded to members of their parliament;

F.whereas Article 27(4) of the Constitution of the Czech Republic provides that Deputies and Senators may not be criminally prosecuted except with the consent of the chamber of which they are a member and that if that chamber withholds its consent, such criminal prosecution shall be foreclosed for the duration of their mandate;

G.whereas in this case, Parliament has found no evidence of fumus persecutionis, i.e. factual elements which indicate that the intention underlying the legal proceeding may be to damage a Member’s political activity and thus the European Parliament;

H.whereas Parliament cannot assume the role of a court, and whereas, in a waiver of immunity procedure, a Member cannot be regarded as a ‘defendant’;

1.Decides to waive the immunity of Jana Nagyová;

2.Instructs its President to forward this decision and the report of its committee responsible immediately to the competent authority of the Czech Republic and to Jana Nagyová.