On Tuesday 19 June in case T-86/17, the European Union upheld the decision of the European Parliament of 5 December 2016 to recover from the former member of the European Parliament, Marion Le Pen (known as Marine Le Pen), the sum of €298,497.87 for the employment of a parliamentary assistant, as she was unable to provide any evidence of the existence of any activity by this assistant (see EUROPE 11714).
Parliament’s decision was made on the grounds that Le Pen has been unable to prove that a former local parliamentary assistant working for her between 2010 and 2016 had, in fact, carried out any activity, directly and linked exclusively to her mandate. The former MEP then challenged the decision before the General Court, which rejected all of her arguments.
Firstly, the Luxembourg court believes the Secretary-General of Parliament is competent to adopt decisions to recover sums unduly paid concerning MEPs and that decisions of this kind do not undermine the rights of MEPs. It also notes that Le Pen was given the opportunity to argue her case and as such, her rights of defence were not breached.
Stressing that in such cases, the onus is on the MEP to prove that the amounts in question were properly used, they find that Le Pen has not been able to demonstrate that her assistant actually performed any work for her in Parliament.
Finally, the court finds that Le Pen was not on the receiving end of discriminatory or partial treatment, as she was not able to demonstrate that Front National MEPs alone had been the subject of similar proceedings.
Immediately reacting on Twitter, Le Pen claimed to have submitted “655 documents proving the work of [her] parliamentary assistant” (our translation), before announcing her intention to appeal against the judgement before the Court of Justice of the European Union. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)