European Parliament seeks recovery from Patriots of EU funds misused by previous far-right group

More than €4 million of EU funds wrongly spent by the European Parliament’s far-right group Identity and Democracy (ID) during the previous term should be repaid by the Patriots for Europe (PfE) group, according to an opinion approved by the Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) on Thursday.

The ID group, which included France’s Rassemblement National and Italy’s The League, wrongly spent at least € 4 333 635.78 of EU funds between 2019 and 2024, according to Parliament’s financial services (DG FINS).

The suspected irregularities were first flagged in February and led the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) to open an investigation on the topic.

Now the CONT Committee suggests that the PfE group, which includes former ID members Rassemblement National and The League, as well as Hungary’s Fidesz and Spain’s Vox, which weren't members of ID, should be held liable for this alleged misuse.

An opinion drafted by the committee's chair Niclas Herbst (EPP) was approved with a large majority of the committee.

It recommends that the Parliament’s legal and financial services examine the feasibility of bringing a civil action against the external auditors who certified the ID Group’s accounts.

However, it also highlights how Parliament could “pursue any entity that is the substantive economic continuation of the original debtor”, thereby pointing the finger at the Patriots for Europe group.

"We want the Parliament to recover all the funds", Mr. Herbst told Euronews. He explains that the CONT committee is not able to decide whether the PfE group is "the successor" of ID group, but can suggest applying "economic continuity".

"We do not want any group to be able to just rebrand itself and escape its responsibilities", the German MEP said.

According to Parliament’s rules, a political group should be treated as “the successor” of a dissolved one - and therefore held liable for any remaining debt - if some conditions apply. 

Among these, “a decisive share of the former group’s members moved together into the new formation”, “premises, IT systems, bank accounts or other assets passed to the new structure”, and “the new name and public messaging presenting the entity as the direct heir of the dissolved group, or following so closely in time that the rebranding appears designed mainly to shed liabilities”.

The opinion claims that the continuity between ID and PfE groups is evident, given that “the group’s Secretary-General and several senior staff are identical to those of the dissolved ID Group, and a substantial majority of former ID members sit in the PfE”.

It also alleges that there is a clear continuity between the ID and Patriots.eu parties, which are different entities from the Parliament political groups, but include the same political parties.

“The European political party formerly registered as ‘Identité et Démocratie Parti’ (ID Party) has [...] recently changed its denomination to ‘Patriots.eu’, thereby affirming a legal continuity between the two parties,” reads the opinion.

After the CONT committee’s vote, no confirmation is needed by the Parliament’s Plenary. The final decision on whether to hold the PfE group accountable for ID’s misuse of funds will be taken by the Parliament’s Bureau, which is composed of the President Roberta Metsola, 14 vice-presidents, and five quaestors.

Patriots for Europe group labelled the opinion a "baseless witch hunt" in a statement shared on its social networks.

"The absurd claim that the Patriots are the legal successor to the ID group is baseless and politically motivated", commented Tamás Deutsch, CONT coordinator for PfE.