Complaint filed in European court over neo-Nazi MEP Lagos’ access to public funds

A German civil advocacy group has reportedly filed a complaint with the European Court in Luxembourg over EU Parliament’s alleged failure to disclose how MEP Yiannis Lagos’ used public EU funds even after his conviction in Greece for being a leading member of neo-Nazi Golden Dawn.

“Despite his criminal conviction, Lagos is not only a member of the European Parliament to this day, but will continue to have access to the public funds to which all MEPs and their assistants are entitled. To date, more than 100,000 euros have been made available to him,” FragDenStaat, a part of the Open Knowledge Foundation, said in a statement on its website.

“It took the European Parliament more than seven months to lift Lagos’ parliamentary immunity which protected him from extradition. During this time, Lagos openly stated that he was making arrangements to seek asylum elsewhere in Europe – likely Norway – to avoid his conviction.

“His access to and use of public funds raises important questions: What has Lagos used these funds for? Have public funds been used to keep criminal activity going? Or to avoid a criminal conviction?

“Only the European Parliament can answer these questions. However, Parliament refuses to release this information in order to protect Lagos’ ‘personal data’,” the non-profit organization said.