In April 2021, the Dutch investigative outlet Follow the Money reported on a request by then president of the European Parliament David Sassoli to investigate Czech MEP for the European Conservatives and Reformists Jan Zahradil for potential breach of parliamentary institutional rules. Zahradil, vice chair of the International Trade Committee and head of the informal EU-China Friendship Group had not properly disclosed the Chinese Mission to the EU’s sponsorship of an event in 2019. In January 2021, Zahradil told the Parliament’s Special Committee on Foreign Interference that he had suspended the informal group’s activities indefinitely after Politico reported that the PRC was sponsoring trips to China for group members and publicizing statements given by those members to bolster support for Beijing’s policies vis-à-vis the EU. In the letter sent to Dutch investigative outlet Follow the Money in April 2021, Sassoli’s team did not disclose which MEPs were targeted by the parliamentary investigation. The group also included German AfD MEP Maximilian Krah who was subsequently found to have accepted payments from both Russia and China.