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Dansk Folkeparti to pay over 200,000 kroner back to EU in wake of funding scandal
Christian Wenande
October 18th, 2016
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But the party still maintains it did nothing wrong as investigations continue
The right-wing party Dansk Folkeparti (DF) has decided to pay back as much as 300,000 kroner to the EU in the wake of the funding scandal that led to MEP Morten Messerschmidt stepping down as its head of affairs in the EU in August.
It has surfaced that the EU-sceptic party spent money allocated by the EU on its own summer meetings – political parties are not permitted to spend EU funds to campaign for a national party.
“We are going through all the documents and we will have an overview by the end of the week that we will present to the European Parliament on Monday,” Anders Vistisen, DF’s new EU head, told DR Nyheder.
“I won’t say anything more about specific amounts, but we want to make a clean cut. Should there be any doubt regarding specific expenses, DF will pay the money back.”
READ MORE: Messerschmidt asked to pay back 120,700 kroner for rented boat
Investigations persist
Despite paying the funds back, DF rejects any notion of wrong-doing and still refuses to release the annexes pertaining to the case.
The scandal gathered momentum back in 2015 when it was revealed that Messerschmidt’s EU-sceptic alliance MELD had been given EU funding – some of which was spent on renting a 100-year-old boat for the party’s 10-day political summer cruise around Denmark.
This is against EU protocol and as a result OLAF, the EU’s anti-fraud unit, is investigating the case, as is DF.
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