Request for the waiver of the immunity of Steeve Briois

The Legal Affairs Committee adopted the report by Evelyn REGNER (S&D, AT) on the request for waiver of the immunity of Steeve BRIOIS (ENF, FR).

As a reminder, the Prosecutor General of the Court of Appeal of Douai requested the waiver of the parliamentary immunity of a Member of the European Parliament, Steeve Briois, in connection with legal proceedings pending before the Douai Regional Court.

The request is related to legal proceedings instituted in relation to the offence of public insult directed at an individual in connection with allegedly defamatory comments that a number of internet users posted in response to a text that Mr Briois had published on 23 December 2015 on his Facebook page and that were not promptly removed by Mr Briois.

At the request of the Committee on Legal Affairs, the Public Prosecutor of Douai Regional Court stated that the aforementioned comments were certainly still online on 21 November 2017.

The committee took the view that the allegations against Steeve Briois, and the subsequent request for waiver of his immunity, are not related to an opinion expressed or vote cast by him in the performance of his duties as a Member of the European Parliament.

It considered that there is no apparent evidence of fumus persecutionis, that is, a sufficiently serious and precise suspicion that the case has been brought with the intention of causing political damage to the Member concerned.

Therefore, the committee recommended the European Parliament to waive the immunity of Steeve Briois.