Brussels – Europe and the Arabs

According to a European statement issued in Brussels on Thursday, the European People's Party (EPP) group is seeking to prevent the use of EU taxpayer funds to finance Islamist individuals or organizations. Speaking ahead of a vote scheduled in the European Parliament later today, MEP Céline Imart—who is leading the group's work on this issue—stated: "We must ensure that Europe does not fund Islamists; a distinction must be made between Islam as a faith and political Islam as an ideology. We must also safeguard both democracy and religious freedom. Wherever the rules permit, the Council should designate individuals and organizations linked to the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist entities; European funds must not go toward financing groups that threaten our rights and freedoms."
The EPP group’s key messages include calls for greater scrutiny of EU funding, a guarantee of full transparency regarding the ultimate beneficiaries of such funds, and the implementation of stronger safeguards to identify and prevent any potential misuse of the money. For his part, Tomáš Zdechovský, a Member of the European Parliament and the group’s spokesperson on budgetary control, stated: "Under no circumstances should EU funding reach individuals or organizations linked to Islamist networks. The European Commission and Member States must rigorously verify the identity of funding recipients before granting funds. We need to know who receives EU money, the amounts involved, and through which programs; we must be able to track every euro, monitor risks, and halt funding if conditions and rules are not met."
The European People's Party (EPP) Group is the largest political group in the European Parliament, comprising 184 members from all EU Member States.