Wednesday

29th Nov 2023

Le Pen's EU group in fresh spending scandal

  • An internal audit, seen by EUobserver, shows a half million euro hole in the Europe of Nations and Freedom group's accounting records. (Photo: europarl.europa.eu)

Marine Le Pen's political group in the European Parliament, the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF), may have misspent almost half a million euros of public taxpayers' money.

A report by auditors at EY (formerly Ernst & Young), dated 19 May 2017 and seen by EUobserver, says the group did not meet budget obligations for "10 service providers with a total value of €492,506.88". Another €53,876.31 worth of income was also unaccounted for.

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

EY was commissioned as an external auditor for the ENF group. The auditing firm's task was part of a standard procedure to audit EU money granted to and used by the ENF.

The ENF group was formed in mid-2015 and includes far-right and virulent anti-EU members, such as Le Pen's National Front party, Italy's Northern League, and Austria's Freedom Party.

The EU has funded pan-European political parties since 2004 with the aim of increasing interest in European elections, but EU parliament rules prohibit MEPs and their political groups from spending that money on national elections or referendums.

The "instances of non-compliance" with the rules, cited in the EY audit, follow a separate investigation into the former French presidential candidate.

The earlier investigation already accused her of abusing EU parliament funds for her national political ambitions by paying assistants for tasks unrelated to the EU.

Belgian Green MEP Bart Staes, who sits on the parliament's budgetary oversight committee, told EUobserver the EY numbers were worrying. "If true, then this is a major issue," he said. He added that the EU parliament's secretary general, Klaus Welle, may have to ask for the money to be reimbursed.

ENF treasurer Gerolf Annemans denied any wrongdoing in a statement, noting that they fully endorsed the EY report. "There is no question of fraud or cheating as expressly mentioned in this report," he said.

Big expenses in staffing and advertising

The 13-page audit was issued following new information, received by EY in May, detailing the group's funding over the course of 2016.

The half-a-million euro discrepancy disclosed by EY clashes with the EU parliament's procurement rules under a so-called 400 budget line, which deals with how money is divided up and used by political groups.

It is not immediately clear how or where the money was spent, but figures provided in the audit showed a massive increase in costs when compared to the previous reporting period - in staffing, advertising, and "political and information activities of national delegations."

However, since ENF was founded in mid-2015, it did not receive a full budget for that year. It was first awarded a €1.5 million grant in 2015. The year after, it received €3.2 million.

The EY audit comes at a tricky time for Le Pen.

A previous investigation into her National Front party has accused her of defrauding the EU parliament out of almost €5 million to pay staff for party work in France between 2012 until the lead-up to the May 2017 presidential election.

An annex in the latest report, for instance, noted the MEPs had spent over half of the group's total budget provided to them by the EU parliament for 2016.

Almost a quarter of that went on "posters, leaflets, and booklets", followed by big spending on online adverts and staffing.

A similar amount of some €500,000 was also misspent by the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe, a political group dominated by MEPs from Nigel Farage's anti-EU UK Independence Party (Ukip), according to another auditing report first seen by the Guardian newspaper last November.

Nicholas Aiossa, from the NGO Transparency International, said full clarity was needed on how all MEPs and political groups were spending public money.

“This current revelation involves a political group whose members are already embroiled in a systematic investigation into misuse of EU funds involving National Front MEPs and assistants," Aiossa, from the NGO’s Brussels office, said.

Judges refuse to 'let go' of Le Pen's fake jobs case

As MEPs start to examine a request to lift Marine Le Pen's parliamentary immunity on Monday, judges in Paris are trying to tighten the judiciary's noose around the French far-right leader.

Neuer Ausgabenskandal für Le Pens EU Fraktion

Eine interne Rechnungsprüfung, die von EUobserver gesehen wurde, weist einen Fehlbetrag von einer halben Million Euro in den Büchern der Fraktion Europa der Nationen und Freiheit auf

Investigation

Citizens pay for MEPs' ghost offices

Each member of the European Parliament gets €4,342 every month, mainly to fund an office in their own country. But many of these offices seem nowhere to be found.

Opinion

The EU's 'no added sugars' fruit-juice label sleight-of-hand

The Food Information to Consumers package would have finally regulated the health or nutrition claims companies make on their products, claims like "heart-healthy" "30-percent less fat" or "no added sugar". Legislation on these claims is now 15 years overdue.

Column

How centre-right conservatives capitulate to the far-right

Many conservatives in Europe seem to have forgotten the lesson of 1930s Germany. They sacrifice their principles on the altar of the polls and all-too-often try to overtake rightwing radicals on their own pet subjects like security or migration.

Latest News

  1. The EU's 'no added sugars' fruit-juice label sleight-of-hand
  2. EU belittles Russia's Lavrov on way to Skopje talks
  3. Member states stall on EU ban on forced-labour products
  4. EU calls for increased fuel supplies into Gaza
  5. People-smuggling profits at historic high, EU concedes
  6. EU bets big on fossil hydrogen and carbon storage
  7. How centre-right conservatives capitulate to the far-right
  8. My experience trying to negotiate with Uber

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  2. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?
  3. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  4. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  5. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  2. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  4. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations
  5. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  6. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us