The EU Anti-Fraud Prosecutor’s Office (EPP) is reportedly investigating allegations of fraud against the European People’s Party. The accusations concern the alleged improper use of community funds in the 2019 electoral campaign of Manfred Weber, now president of the EPP and the parliamentary group, and at the time Spitzenkandidaten of the People’s Party. Politico.eu writes it, citing three sources.
The investigations
The investigations would concern three people, two of them high profile, connected to the Bavarian politician’s electoral campaign. The investigation focuses on the hypothesis that the three individuals would have improperly received payments both from the EPP as a party and as a group. But money allocated to parliamentary groups, which is funded by taxpayers, should not be spent on political campaigns.
The defense of the group
The popular group, in a statement, specified that it had not been contacted by the EPP, “by the Belgian authorities or by any other police agency, regarding possible investigations of any kind. The EPP group is proud to extend its full cooperation with the EPP and with any other national or European authority, should it ever be contacted, and in full transparency”.
The EPP Group “imposes rigorous standards in the implementation of its budget and voluntarily submits to audits to ensure compliance, not least by an internal auditor, external auditors and the Court of Auditors, whenever required. None of the audits currently open cases of alleged improper use of funds”, he concludes.
