Transparency International on April 24 asked the EU’s anti-fraud office (OLAF) to open a probe into administrative failings in the case and recommended disciplinary action against former Belgian MEP and Secretary-General of the Patriots group Philip Claeys, according to a letter seen by POLITICO. Transparency International says Claeys was responsible because he signed off on the spending.
“OLAF can confirm that we received the incoming information and are currently looking into the matter,” the office’s spokesperson said. “We cannot comment further at this stage.”
The spokesperson said “the fact that OLAF is examining the matter does not mean that OLAF has opened an investigation” and that “it is only after such an initial assessment that OLAF decides whether or not to open an investigation.”
Transparency International also said that OLAF should examine whether, given Claeys was ID’s secretary-general and now holds the same role with the Patriots — and still has control over EU funds — his conduct “gives rise to ongoing risks to the Union budget.”
The Parliament’s budgetary control committee in September 2025 asked the Parliament’s secretary-general to recover the funds from the Patriots.
The Patriots said at the time in a post on X that the group was the victim of a politically motivated “witch hunt” and that it isn’t the same legal entity as ID, whose accounts from previous financial years had already been closed.