When the European Parliament declined to act, an anti-corruption watchdog did it for them. On 15 July, Transparency International EU (TI EU) filed a complaint with the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) over the potential misuse of more than €276,000 by the Patriots for Europe (PfE), the far-right group chaired by Rassemblement National figurehead Jordan Bardella.
The referral is a pointed rebuke of Parliament itself. A day earlier, the institution's Committee on Budgetary Control had the chance to send the case to prosecutors and chose not to.
According to TI EU, the money was misspent in the group's 2024 accounts, with allegations including donations to organisations outside the EU level and breaches of procurement rules — such as awarding contracts to companies tied to members' national parties. Rather than refer the matter, a coalition of the centre-right European People's Party and far-right groups, including the Patriots themselves, blocked the move. The apparent resolution: let the Patriots simply repay the money from a reserve fund — itself made up of taxpayers' cash.
"The repeated misuse of EU taxpayers' money by far-right political groups in the Parliament has gone on far too long," said Nick Aiossa, director of Transparency International EU. "The newest allegations of the misspending of 276,000 euros by Jordan Bardella's Patriots for Europe group must be fully investigated. This is why we have now referred the matter to the European Public Prosecutor, in the absence of adequate action by the European Parliament."
The case does not stand alone. The Patriots' direct predecessor, the Identity and Democracy group — which brought together many of the same national parties before rebranding — is already the subject of an EPPO criminal investigation over roughly €4.3m in misspent funds. TI EU had earlier lodged a separate complaint with the EU's anti-fraud office, OLAF, over the group's secretary general.
For a political family that campaigns against a wasteful and unaccountable Brussels, the accumulation of fund-misuse cases is an awkward look — and one its rivals are keen to highlight.
The story here is as much about the Parliament as the Patriots. By voting to keep the case in-house, a mainstream-plus-far-right majority handed critics an easy line: that MEPs will shield their own rather than let prosecutors look. Whether the EPPO takes up the referral is now the question that matters. If it does, a group that built its brand on attacking the EU could find itself defending its spending in front of the EU's own prosecutors — and the EPP's willingness to vote alongside the far right will face fresh scrutiny.
