The inadequate use of funds designed to pay the attendees of European deputies has been quite extended in recent years, but few episodes have given rise to demands.
The French policy of the extreme right Marine Le Pen and eight other former deputies of his party were considered guilty of the misuse of community funds. But they were not the only ones and the misuse of money destined to pay the deputies attendees is quite common in Parliament, several sources familiar with the internal functioning of Parliament to Euronews said.
How should the deputies pay their attendees?
Each MEF is entitled to a monthly amount designed to pay its assistants, which amounts to 30,769 euros in the current legislature (2024-2029), a slight increase over the previous one.
At least 40% of this allocation is intended for accredited assistants (APA), who work in Parliament facilities in Brussels, Luxembourg or Strasbourg and are hired directly by Parliament.
The remaining 60% can be used for “local assistants”, hired directly by the deputy OA through a service provider, who works from the deputy’s electoral circle in his Member State. The expenses related to the work of the APA and the local assistants are only financed “for the necessary assistance and directly related to the exercise of the parliamentary mandate of the deputy.”
This rule was often violated in the past and remains, according to the sources.
Since the boundaries between what is “necessary and directly linked” to the role of the deputy and what they do not constitute are not clear, the “local assistants” often perform functions that are not strictly related to the deputy’s activity in Parliament.
“Some deputies employ local politicians who develop political activities in their electoral circle,” said a source of Parliament, which speaks freely under anonymity. “Then, their phone calls and meetings are distorted to be informed as related, in one way or another, with the parliamentary mandate of the deputy,” added this source.
Sometimes this practice is revealed and has resulted in several episodes of deviation of funds in recent years.
The case of Marine Le Pen caught international attention, as the former UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, when he used an assistant to work on matters related to Parliament, or that of former Greek socialist vice president, Eva Kaili, accused of incorrectly spending between 120,000 and 150,000 euros.
However, behind famous cases, there are other deputies who have been involved in similar situations.
The European Parliament does not provide statistics on this issue, but in the last ten years, nine times, it has been associated with civil actions against European deputies, in cases related to fraud against EU financial interests.
“Our goal when we are associated as a civil part is always participating in the protection of European taxpayers and the European Parliament Budget,” said Parliament Press Office to Euronews.
But not all incidents of misuse of funds will end the Court, he told Euronews, on condition of anonymity.
In some cases, Parliament carries out an internal administrative control and asks the MEP to reimburse the amount out of place, issuing a collection collection. Parliament can also send the case to the competent European and national authorities when there are suspicions of fraud.
ADVERTISINGIn other cases, it is the European body of struggles against the fight (Olaf) that receives a complaint and, after a pre -selection phase, decides to investigate (that was the case of Le Pen).
Anyone can make complaints and sometimes European deputies transmit to Olaf. “Information about Le Pen comes from its political opponents,” said the second source.
However, there are few complaints that give rise to an Olaf survey and even less those that result in a final report: most of the time, the body to fight fraud does not find enough reasons to proceed.
On the other hand, when Olaf conducts a deeper investigation, it transmits its conclusions to Parliament, which can decide how to proceed.
ADVERTISINGIn the case of criminal crimes, such as fraud, OLAF refers to the case of the European lawyer’s office, which can investigate former trade or involve a national prosecutor. However, the European lawyer’s office has only been active since 2021, and the cases prior to that date, such as Le Pen, were sent to the national courts.
According to his press office, the European lawyer does not provide numbers or confirms what cases they are working on, to avoid jeopardizing the ongoing procedures and their results. However, the European prosecutor made public several cases During the research process.
In 2023, for example, the European lawyer seized More than 170 thousand euros in goods belonging to the Italian Stefania Zambelli, then they were of the Italian League.
“We do not know how many MEPs participate in this practice. Parliament does not make this information public, although we believe it should do it,” Nicholas Aiosa, director of the NGO International, told EU.
ADVERTISING“Sometimes cases are discovered through investigation journalism. Over the years, we have also had complaints that contact us to account for undue subsidies schemes,” he added.
To evaluate the degree of dissemination of bad practices, at theious appointment of a 2023 report to follow the money, which establishes that 139 EU legislators incorrectly used the money they receive for attendees and that Parliament recovered funds on 155 times between 2019 and 2022.
In reference to this report, the European Parliament Press Office told Euronews: “Most are technical recoveries not related to irregularities. Only a minority of cases refers to attendees. The” recovered amounts “include lower cases of potential abuse, but consist mainly of technical adjustments, administrative errors and voluntary reimbursement.”
