The European Parliament,

–  having regard to the request for waiver of the immunity of Georgios Kyrtsos, forwarded on 21 July 2015 by the Prosecutor’s Office at the Supreme Court of Greece in connection with a complaint from the East Attica Labour Inspectorate for non-payment of wages(1) and announced in plenary on 9 September 2015,

–  having regard to the fact that Georgios Kyrtsos waived his right to a hearing in accordance with Rule 9(5) 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 to 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 12 May 1964, 10 July 1986, 15 and 21 October 2008, 19 March 2010, 6 September 2011 and 17 January 2013(2),

–  having regard to Article 62 of the Constitution of the Hellenic Republic,

–  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 (A8-0358/2015),

A.  whereas the Prosecutor’s Office at the Supreme Court of Greece has requested the waiver of the immunity of Georgios Kyrtsos, Member of the European Parliament, in connection with possible legal action concerning an alleged offence;

B.  whereas Article 9 of Protocol No 7 on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Union states that Members of the European Parliament enjoy, in the territory of their own state, the immunities accorded to members of the parliament of that state;

C.  whereas Article 62 of the Constitution of the Hellenic Republic provides that, during their parliamentary term, members of parliament may not be prosecuted, arrested, imprisoned or otherwise confined without prior leave granted by parliament;

D.  whereas Georgios Kyrtsos is accused of non-payment of part of the salary of one of his former employees;

E.  whereas that accusation relates to part of the 2013 salary of a former employee of two newspaper publishing firms, of which Georgios Kyrtsos was the manager at the time, and is directed at Georgios Kyrtsos as the former manager of those firms;

F.  whereas the alleged offence clearly has nothing to do with the office of Georgios Kyrtsos as a Member of the European Parliament but is rather connected to his former position as manager of two newspaper firms;

G.  whereas 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;

H.  whereas there is no reason to suspect that the intention underlying criminal proceedings is to damage a Member’s political activity (fumus persecutionis), given that the prosecution was initiated a number of years before the Member took up his post;

1.  Decides to waive the immunity of Georgios Kyrtsos;

2.  Instructs its President to forward this decision and the report of its committee responsible immediately to the Greek authorities.

(1) Document reference ABM:IB2014/8927. (2) Judgment of the Court of Justice of 12 May 1964, Wagner v Fohrmann and Krier, 101/63, ECLI:EU:C:1964:28; judgment of the Court of Justice of 10 July 1986, Wybot v Faure and others, 149/85, ECLI:EU:C:1986:310; judgment of the General Court of 15 October 2008, Mote v Parliament, T-345/05, ECLI:EU:T:2008:440; judgment of the Court of Justice of 21 October 2008, Marra v De Gregorio and Clemente, C-200/07 and C-201/07, ECLI:EU:C:2008:579; judgment of the General Court of 19 March 2010, Gollnisch v Parliament, T-42/06, ECLI:EU:T:2010:102; judgment of the Court of Justice of 6 September 2011, Patriciello, C-163/10, ECLI: EU:C:2011:543; judgment of the General Court of 17 January 2013, Gollnisch v Parliament, T-346/11 and T-347/11, ECLI:EU:T:2013:23.