Request for the waiver of the immunity of Georgios Kyrtsos

The Committee on Legal Affairs adopted the report by Heidi HAUTALA (Greens/EFA, FI) on the request for waiver of the immunity of Georgios KYRTSOS (EPP, EL).

As a reminder, the request for waiver of Georgios Kyrtsos' immunity, transmitted on 27 February 2018 by the Deputy Prosecutor General at the Supreme Court of the Hellenic Republic, concerns non-payment to his former employee of an Easter bonus of EUR 986.46 on 27 April 2016.

Georgios Kyrtsos, as legal representative (chairman and chief executive officer) of the companies KMP Publishing House Ltd and Free Sunday Publishing House Ltd, hired his former employee on 26 July 2005 in the name of KMP Publishing House Ltd under a contract for employment in both companies as art director.

Parliament highlighted the following considerations:

• the alleged offence clearly has no direct link with the office of Georgios Kyrtsos as a Member of the European Parliament but is instead connected to his former position as manager of two newspaper firms;
• the prosecution does not concern opinions expressed or votes cast in the performance of the duties of the Member of the European Parliament in question for the purposes of Article 8 of Protocol No 7 on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Union;
• there is no reason to suspect that the intention underlying criminal proceedings is to damage a Member’s political activity (fumus persecutionis).

On the basis of these considerations, the committee recommended that the European Parliament decide to waive Georgios Kyrtsos' immunity.