{"id":971309,"date":"2026-05-19T15:47:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/971309\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T15:47:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:47:20","slug":"meps-shield-german-centre-right-angelika-niebler-from-eu-fraud-probe-in-secret-vote-euobserver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/971309\/","title":{"rendered":"MEPs shield German centre-right Angelika Niebler from EU fraud probe in secret vote \u2013 EUobserver"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Parliament on Tuesday (19 May) voted to shield centre-right MEP Angelika Niebler from prosecution, avoiding an investigation by the European public prosecutor\u2019s office (EPPO) over her alleged misuse of EU funds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s secret vote was backed by 309 MEPs, 283 against, with 53 abstentions.<\/p>\n

Last November, Der Spiegel<\/a> and subsequently Politico<\/a> presented plausible allegations of the misuse of allocated EU funds by Niebler, of the centre-right European People\u2019s Party group (EPP). <\/p>\n

From the \u20ac30,769 that German MEPs get to spend on staff, in the European parliament or at home in their constituency office, Niebler has been accused of spending for private purposes, including the hiring of local assistants.<\/p>\n

The European chief prosecutor requested the lifting of Neibler\u2019s immunity on 21 July last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder German constitutional law, prosecutors cannot open a criminal investigation against a sitting parliamentarian without prior authorisation from the relevant parliament,\u201d the European Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office (EPPO) told EUobserver in an emailed statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Watchdogs, including The Good Lobby<\/a>, along with Transparency International<\/a> EU, Corporate Europe Observatory<\/a>, and LobbyControl<\/a>, wrote to MEPs ahead of Tuesday\u2019s plenary vote asking them to lift Niebler\u2019s immunity to allow a proper investigation by the EPPO.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe refusal to lift immunity now creates a procedural barrier: as a result, the investigation cannot proceed beyond this preliminary stage,\u201d explained the EPPO in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u2018Obstruction of justice\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat MEPs have done today is tantamount to obstruction of justice of a criminal investigation. Parliamentary immunity is an important democratic safeguard to shield lawmakers from political persecution,\u201d reacted Nick Aiossa, director at Transparency International EU.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere the facts could be laid bare, MEPs have chosen to hide them, once more suggesting that they will look out for their own, instead of promoting the just application of the law,\u201d added Aiossa.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Niebler has described the fraud allegations brought by EU prosecutors as \u201cunfounded\u201d to Politico<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When asked by EUobserver, her office did not respond in time for publication.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Niebler is seen as the number two in the German centre-right in the European Parliament. She has been an MEP since 1999 and co-chairs the CSU delegation within the EPP \u2014 the same powerful political family led by German centre-right MEP Manfred Weber.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She also ranks among the highest outside-income earners<\/a> in the entire Parliament, with estimated outside earnings at around \u20ac177,500 to \u20ac195,000 per year on top of her official, full-time MEP salary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among other extra-curricular earnings, she offers services to the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, despite sitting in the parliament\u2019s industry committee. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is registered under the EU transparency register.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The parliament\u2019s legal affairs committee, of which Niebler is a deputy member, voted behind closed doors earlier in May against stripping her immunity.<\/p>\n

But the protection of one of the most powerful MEPs within the European Parliament has also prompted an immediate backlash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cParliamentary immunity exists to protect democracy, not politicians from accountability,\u201d said professor of EU law at HEC Paris and EUobserver columnist Alberto Alemmano<\/a> on social media. <\/p>\n

He said the vote is a case study of \u201chow parliamentary immunity gets weaponised.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2025, Marine Le Pen, the former leader of the far-right National Rally, was sentenced to five years\u2019 ineligibility for misusing European public funds during her time as an MEP. <\/p>\n

An appeals court is scheduled to issue its final verdict on her in July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Parliament on Tuesday (19 May) voted to shield centre-right MEP Angelika Niebler from prosecution, avoiding an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":971310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[217083,2000,299,5187,220440,270952,270950,220438,270951,220439],"class_list":["post-971309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-typedefinedterm","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-identifier29","tag-identifier4280","tag-nameeu-parliament","tag-namerule-of-law","tag-termcodeeu-parliament","tag-termcoderule-of-law"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116602029543095913","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=971309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/971310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=971309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=971309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=971309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}