The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) confirmed on Tuesday that it is conducting investigative measures in France and other European countries concerning the use of EU funds by the former Identity and Democracy (ID) political group in the European Parliament between 2019 and 2024. According to the French daily Le Monde, which first reported the operation, searches were carried out in France, Spain, Italy and Belgium, targeting the offices and private residences of communication service providers that had worked with the group. The probe, formally opened in July 2025 following a report from the Parliament’s Directorate for Financial Affairs, centres on €4.33 million that ID is suspected of having “unduly spent” from parliamentary allocations intended for its functioning.

The EPPO, an independent EU body established in 2021 to investigate and prosecute crimes against the bloc’s financial interests, stated that it was acting in coordination with national authorities, including France’s Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Fiscal Offences. It declined to provide further details, citing the need to protect the ongoing proceedings. The ID group, which dissolved after the 2024 European elections, brought together MEPs from several right-wing parties, including Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), Italy’s League led by Matteo Salvini, and the Alternative for Germany (AfD). The searches add a new dimension to the legal pressures facing the RN, which is already awaiting a 7 July ruling from the Paris Court of Appeal on whether to uphold a previous conviction that would bar Le Pen from running in the 2027 presidential election.

Reacting to the searches, RN president Jordan Bardella, who now leads the successor Patriots for Europe (PFE) group, described the operation as a “harassment operation” and noted on social media that “as always, judicial procedures announce the electoral calendar.” He asserted that the party had “nothing to reproach ourselves for.” French media also reported that Bardella himself faces a separate potential judicial investigation, following a complaint by the anti-corruption association Anticor concerning a four-and-a-half-month stint as a parliamentary assistant in 2015. Viewed from Paris, the timing of the raids — one week before the Le Pen ineligibility decision — has prompted RN figures to question the motivations behind the renewed investigative activity, though the EPPO has not commented on any link to domestic French politics.

The EPPO’s investigation is procedurally distinct from the long-running French case into the RN’s alleged misuse of parliamentary assistant funds, but both touch on the same broader question of how the party and its allies managed European public money. The current probe focuses on whether ID improperly used funds for communication services, with the searches spanning the four countries where the founder of a key communications agency is active. The EPPO has not announced any charges, and the investigation remains at an evidence-gathering stage. The next concrete step will be the Paris court’s ruling on Le Pen’s eligibility, expected on 7 July, which will determine whether she can contest the 2027 presidential race.