Marine Le Pen and eight former MEPs were found guilty of embezzling EU funds, highlighting a common issue of misuse of funds for assistants in the European Parliament. The allowance for assistants is often misused, with many MEPs employing local politicians for unrelated activities. While some cases lead to civil proceedings, many incidents remain unreported. Transparency International EU estimates that 139 EU lawmakers misused funds between 2019 and 2022, though the Parliament claims most recoveries are due to technical errors. Teljes cikk (Euronews.com)