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 has learned.
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 (£484,367) of EU funds.
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.