Patriots Regrets The Last-Minute U-Turn of The EPP, Useful Idiot of The Left, Which Sank The Technical Report on The Protection of EU Taxpayers' Money
Strasbourg, 30/04/2026 - After months of defending it, hailing it in plenary and pledging to vote for it, the European People's Party gave in to left-wing pressure at the last minute by passing through left-wing amendments aimed at sabotaging the report by Patriotes MEP Julien Sanchez on the protection of the EU's financial interests.
The report, adopted in committee by 15 votes to 12, is the result of months of technical work and hearings with the European Public Prosecutor's Office, the European Court of Auditors, OLAF, Eurojust and Europol. It proposed concrete measures in particular to strengthen expenditure controls, ensure full transparency in the use of EU funds, recover lost revenues each year and modernise anti-fraud tools through digitalisation and artificial intelligence. In short: concrete solutions to protect taxpayers' money in a Union whose outstanding borrowing could exceed €900 billion by 2027.
The rapporteur, MEP Julien Sanchez, recalled that his report was "technical, not political" and that he invited all groups to participate in the work – an invitation systematically ignored by the left. The shadow rapporteurs of the leftist groups did not contribute a single line to the file, and yet tried at the last minute to divert it with partisan amendments targeting Marine Le Pen and the Rassemblement National, unable to accept that a member of the RN could see a report adopted in plenary only a few months before the French presidential election. "I would like someone to tell me what was factually incorrect in this report. Absolutely nothing," Sanchez said, regretting that "the protection of the EU's financial interests deserved better than that."
Patriots for Europe regrets that, once again, the EPP has chosen to bow to left-wing intimidation rather than defend serious parliamentary work and the legitimate interest of European citizens in having their money properly managed. When it was forced to choose between substance and ideology, the European People's Party chose ideology.
Patriots for Europe will continue to defend, alone if necessary, those citizens who expect their contributions to be used honestly – not lost because of the opacity, waste and costly ambitions of an institution that has stopped managing its own budget.