Thursday

1st Jun 2023

Danish far-right MEP ordered to return €400,000

  • Denmark voted no in the referendum (Photo: EUobserver)

Danish nationalist MEP Morten Messerschmidt has been ordered to repay over €400,000 to the European Parliament.

The move follows a unanimous decision on Monday (9 May) by the parliament's bureau, a body that oversees the assembly’s work.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

A 13-page internal report, seen by this website, accuses Messerschmidt's anti-immigrant and eurosceptic Danish Peoples Party of mismanaging parliament grants.

But Messerschmidt, who is the party’s outspoken leader, has denied any wrongdoing and says the demand for a refund is politically motivated.

The report, signed off by parliament secretary-general Klaus Welle and dated 26 April, says the Danish Peoples Party siphoned off money from EU grants for its own political ends last year.

The money had been awarded in 2015 to an alliance of far-right groups known as the Movement for a Europe of Liberties and Democracy (MELD). Messerschmidt sat on its board.

Funds were also given to its political affiliation, the Foundation for a Europe of Liberties and Democracy (FELD).

MELD disbanded near the end of last year.

But at its height, it counted among its ranks former MEPs such as Belgian Flemish nationalist Frank Vanhecke from the Vlaams Belang party and Italian Claudio Morganti from the Lega Nord.

Messerschmidt is accused of using some €296,679 given to MELD by the European Parliament to help finance a video, released in April last year, and a follow-up campaign asking the Danes to vote No in a December 2015 referendum on whether to join EU justice and home affairs policies.

The campaign included adverts with slogans like "Keep the opt-out - keep Denmark safe” and “Say no to EU parties' deceit on the Danish opt-out. More Denmark, less EU - it's possible." Messerschmidt himself and the president of the Danish People's Party Kristian Thulesen Dahl featured prominently in the adverts.

"Such promotion is understood as an indirect support of a national party, which is forbidden," notes the bureau’s report.

MELD, for its part, says the video was not linked to the referendum because it had been produced before the Danish government had set an official date.

"It is our interpretation that there cannot be interference in a national election or a referendum that does not exist or is not yet scheduled," it said.

The video had featured a MELD logo with a banner saying vote No in the referendum.

The parliament grant money to MELD had been used to finance boat trips and a €130,000 consultancy fee.

MELD and FELD also helped pay an advertising campaign on EU social dumping, which also featured Messerschmidt and Dahl.

Thulesen-Dahl told Danish radio the party was not subject to the same criteria as other parties because of its critical views of the EU. He also said the case would not have political consequences for Messerschmidt.

EU anti-fraud body to probe Danish party

The Danish People’s Party may incorrectly have spent EU money on meetings that were not clearly divided from national party gatherings.

MEPs to urge block on Hungary taking EU presidency in 2024

"This will be the first time a member state that is under the Article 7 procedure will take over the rotating presidency of the council," French Green MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, the key lawmaker on Hungary, warned.

European Parliament scales back luxury MEP pension fund

The European Parliament's Bureau, a political body composed of the president and its vice-presidents, decided to slash payouts from the fund by 50 percent, freeze automatic indexations, and increase the pension age from 65 to 67.

Column

What a Spanish novelist can teach us about communality

In a world where cultural clashes and sectarianism seems to be on the increase, Spanish novelist Javier Cercas (b.1962) takes the opposite approach. He cherishes both life in the big city and in the countryside.

Opinion

Poland and Hungary's ugly divorce over Ukraine

What started in 2015 as a 'friends-with-benefits' relationship between Viktor Orbán and Jarosław Kaczyński, for Hungary and Poland, is ending in disgust and enmity — which will not be overcome until both leaders leave.

Latest News

  1. Europe's TV union wooing Lavrov for splashy interview
  2. ECB: eurozone home prices could see 'disorderly' fall
  3. Adapting to Southern Europe's 'new normal' — from droughts to floods
  4. Want to stop forced migration from West Africa? Start by banning bottom trawling
  5. Germany unsure if Orbán fit to be 'EU president'
  6. EU Parliament chief given report on MEP abuse 30 weeks before sanction
  7. EU clashes over protection of workers exposed to asbestos
  8. EU to blacklist nine Russians over jailing of dissident

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us