Scandal in the EU: European Parliament funded convicted neo-Nazi MEP Investigation by Euractiv

The European news website Euractiv has published an article exposing transparency problems in the EU, using the case of former Greek MEP Ioannis Lagos as an example. Caliber.Az provides its readers with the most telling excerpts of the piece.

When neo-Nazi leaders of Greece’s Golden Dawn party were convicted of criminal organisation, illegal possession of weapons, involvement in the fatal stabbing of a left-wing rapper and brutal assaults, the verdict sent shivers through Europe’s far right and beyond. Some of its members fled and went into hiding.

But not Ioannis Lagos, one of its senior figures. Elected to the European Parliament in 2019, Lagos continued attending legislative sessions, voting, speaking, and travelling between Greece and Belgium for six months as any other MEP would.

In October 2020, Lagos was sentenced to 13 years and eight months in prison for leading a criminal organisation and related charges. After Lagos’ unprecedented sentence, the MEP enjoyed immunity privileges and received at least €30,000 in benefits from the Parliament until April 2021, according to new parliamentary documents seen by Euractiv.

Four people familiar with the case said Parliament found no legal basis to suspend his pay or mandates. The European Parliament has stated that MEPs are entitled to “allowances covering expenses incurred in the performance of their parliamentary duties, subject to the presentation of receipts and proof of attendance.”

“Just because Lagos’s cash-in was legal doesn’t mean it should have been,” said Luisa Izuzquiza of FragDenStaat, a Germany-based transparency NGO that obtained the Lagos files. “The fact that it was legal is the problem. His case shows a serious flaw in the system that needs fixing to prevent it from happening again.”

Accountability gaps

The case not only exposes how gaps in EU procedures allowed Lagos to remain on the EU payroll, but also highlights tensions over financial accountability and transparency in European institutions.

The NGO FragDenStaat brought the case before the European Court of Justice, which ruled in 2024 that the institution must disclose more information on a case “of a highly exceptional nature.” The court said citizens have a legitimate interest in knowing “for what purpose and to which places Lagos and his parliamentary assistants made journeys” during a period in which the MEP had already been convicted but not yet imprisoned.

“The fact that the Parliament fought in court to keep these documents secret is a disgrace,” Izuzquiza said. “MEPs are elected representatives, and their allowances come from taxpayers. Transparency should be the rule, not a court-ordered exception.”

Lagos attendance

Between his conviction in October 2020 and his arrest in April 2021, Lagos received €28,974 in daily allowances, and approximately €1,700 in travel reimbursements between Greece and Belgium, documents show. It remains unclear whether he received also his full MEP monthly salary of €11,000 for that period.

The documents show Lagos claimed compensation for a total of 25 daily allowances for plenary sessions. Of these, Euractiv found that he recorded votes or interventions on 19 days.

In Brussels, Lagos’s situation fell into a grey zone because of Greece’s legal framework and EU procedures that did not envision such a case.

The charges the former MEP was convicted of include directing a criminal organisation and illegal weapons possession, Golden Dawn Watch, a Greek NGO monitoring the trial, told Euractiv.

Though Greek authorities didn’t strip Lagos of his mandate at the time of his conviction, recent reforms would make it possible to do so.