The agreement makes it easier for EPPO to access the Parliament’s premises, to request to relinquish the immunity of lawmakers and staff, and to access documents related to investigations. The agreement, which was signed on Wednesday, comes weeks after EPPO revealed it is conducting an investigation into one of the Parliament’s political groups, the European People’s … Read more
Ukraine’s supporters say it’s proof that the body is “fractured” and unable to react to global crises. “Like all multilateral organizations in this day and age, the FATF is fractured in matters of geopolitics,” said Tom Keatinge, the director of the center for finance and security at the Royal United Services Institute. “If international bodies … Read more
“The suspects are formally accused of submitting false data and concealing substantial information,” the EPPO added in a press release, while not specifying the names of anyone involved. Czech authorities seized real estate of the company to compensate for the damage to the national budget, national anti-corruption police said in a statement. In a striking … Read more
Cultural differences The National Rally is not the first French party to face accusations of misusing MEP funds for domestic operations. Earlier this year, the centrist Democratic Movement (MoDem), part of the coalition supporting French President Emmanuel Macron, was fined €300,000 over similar allegations. The European Parliament had initially estimated €1.4 million in losses from … Read more
“The justice minister wants him as a trophy to buttress her campaign for the presidential elections in December,” he added. “This is the long and short of it.” Romanian Justice Minister Alina-Ștefania Gorghiu has not, so far, announced any intention to run for president. Gorghiu’s spokesperson said she is “interested by all ‘fugitives,’ no matter … Read more
Alicia Kearns MP, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, published a statement in February questioning why there had been such little action taken: “Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the number of asset freezes under U.K. sanctions has grown significantly. If this is not soon reflected in the number of enforcement actions, … Read more
The claims were passed on to EU anti-fraud investigator OLAF, which started its own probe. (POLITICO and Welt, both owned by Axel Springer, aren’t naming the travel agency for legal reasons.) Despite the warning signs, however, Frontex put out a new request for tenders in December 2022 and a new contract was awarded to the … Read more
Transparency campaigners and some political opponents have sought to put pressure on the Commission to discuss the case, but von der Leyen has so far avoided addressing it. In a reply to a direct question put to her by POLITICO about missing text messages, von der Leyen said: “Everything necessary about that has been said … Read more
