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Brussels to spend €250m on funding anti-EU alliance of hard-Right parties
Eurosceptic Patriots of Europe group, led by Viktor Orban and Marine Le Pen, is in line for €50.8m a year from the EU
![Marine Le Pen and Viktor Orban](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/07/13/TELEMMGLPICT000279676550_17208903703640_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqgsaO8O78rhmZrDxTlQBjdLdu0TL-Cg_AMOUqySXmFgU.jpeg?imwidth=680)
A Eurosceptic alliance of hard-Right parties, led by Viktor Orban and Marine Le Pen, in the European Parliament is on course to scoop more than €250m in EU funding.
The Patriots for Europe group, formed after European elections last month, is the third largest political alliance in the European Parliament and has pledged to roll back Brussels’ overreach.
Estimates obtained by The Telegraph found that the new faction can expect €50.8m (£43.7m) in EU funding a year, which includes money for the group, MEP salaries and money for offices and assistants.
Over the five-year lifespan of the new parliament, it means Brussels will pay £218m to a group that is dedicated to reasserting national sovereignty from EU overreach.
Parties can form parliamentary groups if they come from at least seven different member states and have a minimum total of 24 MEPs.
Groups qualify for EU funding, more influence and speaking time in Brussels and Strasbourg.
The new group has 84 MEPs from Mr Orban’s Fidesz and Ms Le Pen’s National Rally, Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party, Matteo Salvini’s League, Spain’s Vox and hard-Right parties from Austria, Belgium, Greece, Latvia and Portugal .
“We don’t want a European empire. We don’t want a European United States,” Mr Orban said after the group was formed.“We want national sovereignty and independence under our own national flags,” he added.
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The group stops short of calling for Brexit-style exits from the EU, which some of its members used to support, but wants Brussels’ powers reduced. It is likely to be shut out of senior parliamentary jobs by a cordon sanitaire by the pro-EU parties, which remain in the majority.
Mr Orban has frequently clashed with the European Parliament, which has accused him of eroding democratic standards and the rule of law in Hungary during his 14 years in power.
He has also infuriated MEPs by co-opting Hungary’s six-month term holding the EU presidency to bolster his so-called “peace mission” to Moscow and Beijing to end the war in Ukraine.
Ms Le Pen is poised to go to trial with 24 other people in September over alleged misuse of EU funds. It is alleged that National Rally used European funds meant for parliamentary assistants to pay party staff.
Ms Le Pen and her party have previously denied wrongdoing in connection with campaign financing.
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“If there’s one thing Orban and Le Pen love about Europe, it’s EU funds in their pockets,” Daniel Freund, a German green MEP and fierce critic of the Hungarian prime minister, said.
“For another five years, EU taxpayers will fund the corrupt enemies of democracy. And one thing is for sure: they won’t be doing any legislative work. EU taxpayers will pay them for their anti-EU propaganda. It’s a shame.”
Each MEP has a salary of €97,000 a year, as well as a monthly allowance of €4,778 to cover costs such as phone bills. They receive a budget of €29,557 for running offices and hiring assistants.
That comes to an annual total of more than €42.7m for all 84 of the MEPs, which excludes their per diem of €350 for each day they sign into the parliament.
The group also qualifies for cash, which is calculated based on its size. Assuming the 2024 €68m pot for such funding stays the same, the Patriots group is in line to receive more than €8m a year.
The estimated grand total the EU will pay the group and its MEPs every year, for five years, is €50.8m.
The largest group in the European Parliament is the centre-Right European People’s Party (EPP). It has 188 MEPs and can expect €113.4m a year in funding and salaries.
The centre-Left Socialists and Democrats are the second largest group after a June vote, which resulted in Europe’s shift to the Right.
As well as the Patriots and EPP, there is the soft-Eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformist group, which is the fourth largest in the parliament.
It has not joined forces with the Patriots because the Giorgia Meloni-dominated faction, which is pro-Ukraine, sees it as too soft on Vladimir Putin.
The Patriots would have been larger and entitled to more money but have fallen out with the Alternative For Germany (AfD) party after its lead candidate in the elections said not all Waffen SS members were criminals.
The AfD has now formed another, smaller hard-Right group in the parliament.