In a statement issued on Wednesday 30 October, the EPP Group in the European Parliament said that it had not been “approached by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), or by the Belgian authorities, or indeed by any other law enforcement agency, about any possible investigation of any kind”.
Politico reported on the same day that the EPPO was conducting an “investigation into allegations of misuse of European funds committed in Belgium by members of a political group in the European Parliament”, with the EPP being named.
The “EPP Group imposes rigorous standards in the implementation of its budget and voluntarily subjects itself to scrutiny to ensure compliance, in particular by an internal auditor, by external auditors and by the Court of Auditors, whenever required by this institution. None of the audits currently have any open cases of alleged misuse of funds”, adds the press release.
According to one source, Politico is referring to an old case, dating back to Manfred Weber’s 2019 campaign for the European Commission, which gave rise to suspicions of corruption or misappropriation of funds.
The EPP’s headquarters were also searched in April 2023, but neither the Group nor the EPP have been questioned since then or contacted by any authority whatsoever, the source added. The case was revived a few days ago in the Spanish press, “without any new developments”, it said. According to Politico, which provided further information during the day, there is a new investigation into the 2019 campaign and three people who were allegedly employed by both the Party and the Group. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)