Saturday, December 15, 2018
Tory group told to repay €535,000 to European Parliament
First it was UKIP being asked to repay money to the European Parliament, now a European conservative group co-founded by the Tories and led by Brexit campaigner and MEP Daniel Hannan has been asked to repay more than half a million euros of EU funds following an investigation into their spending.
The Guardian reports that in a rare negative finding touching a British political party in government, European parliament senior leaders on Monday night ordered the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (Acre) to repay €535,609 (£484,360) of EU funds.
They add that the group will be denied a further €187,245, which had been withheld pending investigation. A formal demand for repayment will be issued to the Acre next week, following a decision taken behind closed doors by the parliament’s top leaders on Monday:
Hannan, who has championed Brexit for more than a quarter of a century and was Acre’s secretary-general until December 2017, is told that there are grounds to suspect a conflict of interest on his part, in leaked documents seen by the Guardian. Hannan called that conclusion “absurd” and accused investigators of making false insinuations that were “outrageous”.
The authorities suggest that the money has in some cases been used to promote events which are of limited relevance or benefit to the EU.
Among parliament’s objections was €250,000 spent on a three-day event at a luxury beach resort in Miami. While the keynote speaker was listed as former Spanish prime minister, José María Aznar, the conference had “an almost exclusively American audience”, the parliament found, with an agenda that hardly mentioned the EU.
It also questioned €90,000 spent on a trade “summit” at a five-star hotel on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kampala, where a largely British delegation met African delegates to discuss post-Brexit trade.
The “Great Lakes Trade summit” in Kampala brought together a mostly African audience to meet 20 British politicians and participants, with only three attendees from continental Europe.
According to footage on the website of Conservatives International, the conservative alliance founded by Hannan which hosted the conferences, speakers at the Kampala event included then-minister for international development, Rory Stewart and Douglas Carswell, the former Conservative MP who defected to UKIP and quit frontline politics before the May 2017 election.
Acre insisted that both events “contributed to EU awareness and focused on topics clearly pertinent to EU integration and EU policies”.
It's interesting how it is those most opposed to the EU, who seem to get caught up in these allegations of misspending of European money.
The Guardian reports that in a rare negative finding touching a British political party in government, European parliament senior leaders on Monday night ordered the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (Acre) to repay €535,609 (£484,360) of EU funds.
They add that the group will be denied a further €187,245, which had been withheld pending investigation. A formal demand for repayment will be issued to the Acre next week, following a decision taken behind closed doors by the parliament’s top leaders on Monday:
Hannan, who has championed Brexit for more than a quarter of a century and was Acre’s secretary-general until December 2017, is told that there are grounds to suspect a conflict of interest on his part, in leaked documents seen by the Guardian. Hannan called that conclusion “absurd” and accused investigators of making false insinuations that were “outrageous”.
The authorities suggest that the money has in some cases been used to promote events which are of limited relevance or benefit to the EU.
Among parliament’s objections was €250,000 spent on a three-day event at a luxury beach resort in Miami. While the keynote speaker was listed as former Spanish prime minister, José María Aznar, the conference had “an almost exclusively American audience”, the parliament found, with an agenda that hardly mentioned the EU.
It also questioned €90,000 spent on a trade “summit” at a five-star hotel on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kampala, where a largely British delegation met African delegates to discuss post-Brexit trade.
The “Great Lakes Trade summit” in Kampala brought together a mostly African audience to meet 20 British politicians and participants, with only three attendees from continental Europe.
According to footage on the website of Conservatives International, the conservative alliance founded by Hannan which hosted the conferences, speakers at the Kampala event included then-minister for international development, Rory Stewart and Douglas Carswell, the former Conservative MP who defected to UKIP and quit frontline politics before the May 2017 election.
Acre insisted that both events “contributed to EU awareness and focused on topics clearly pertinent to EU integration and EU policies”.
It's interesting how it is those most opposed to the EU, who seem to get caught up in these allegations of misspending of European money.
