Transparency Worldwide on April 24 requested the EU’s anti-fraud workplace (OLAF) to open a probe into administrative failings within the case and beneficial disciplinary motion in opposition to former Belgian MEP and Secretary-Basic of the Patriots group Philip Claeys, in response to a letter seen by POLITICO. Transparency Worldwide says Claeys was accountable as a result of he signed off on the spending.
“OLAF can affirm that we acquired the incoming info and are presently trying into the matter,” the workplace’s spokesperson stated. “We can’t remark additional at this stage.”
The spokesperson stated “the truth that OLAF is inspecting the matter doesn’t imply that OLAF has opened an investigation” and that “it’s only after such an preliminary evaluation that OLAF decides whether or not or to not open an investigation.”
Transparency Worldwide additionally stated that OLAF ought to look at whether or not, given Claeys was ID’s secretary-general and now holds the identical position with the Patriots — and nonetheless has management over EU funds — his conduct “provides rise to ongoing dangers to the Union price range.”
The Parliament’s budgetary management committee in September 2025 requested the Parliament’s secretary-general to recuperate the funds from the Patriots.
The Patriots stated on the time in a submit on X that the group was the sufferer of a politically motivated “witch hunt” and that it isn’t the identical authorized entity as ID, whose accounts from earlier monetary years had already been closed.
