On Thursday 16 February, the General Court of the EU decided not to suspend the execution of the decisions of the European Parliament calling on French MEPs of the Front National, Jean-Marie Le Pen, Bruno Gollnish and Mylène Troszczynski, to pay back money received as remuneration for local parliamentary assistants, the institution stated in a press release (cases T-140/16 R, T-624/16 and T-626/16). The MEPs in question failed to prove that these decisions prevented them from exercising their mandate.
In January 2016, the Parliament decided that the amount of €320,026.23 had been unduly paid by way of Parliamentary assistance and that this amount was to be recovered from Le Pen. This amount corresponds to the payments made by the Parliament in respect of a member of staff recruited by Le Pen as a local parliamentary assistant and covers the whole of the seventh legislative term.
In July 2016, the Parliament decided that the amount of €275,984.23 had been paid by way of Parliamentary assistance and was to be recovered from Gollnisch. This amount corresponds to the payments made by the Parliament in respect of a member of staff recruited by Gollnisch as a local parliamentary assistant and covers the period from July 2011 to June 2015.
Lastly, for Troszczynski, the Parliament decided in June 2016 that the amount of €56,554 had been unduly paid by way of Parliamentary assistance and was to be recovered from her.
These three members of the European Parliament brought proceedings before the General Court of the European Union to have the decisions of the European Parliament overturned. At the same time, the three MEPs also each brought an application for interim measures to the President of the General Court in order to suspend the execution of these decisions, essentially arguing that the recovery of the money in question would prevent them from being able to exercise their parliamentary mandate effectively and independently. In January 2017, Parliament also ordered MEP Marine Le Pen to pay back money unduly received. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)