Betrugsvorwürfe: CSU-Vize Niebler gibt nach Betrugsvorwürfen Posten im EU-Parlament auf

CSU Vice Chairwoman and EU Member of Parliament Angelika Niebler has declined to run again for co-chair of the CDU/CSU group in the EU Parliament following accusations of fraud, according to information from the Deutsche Presse-Agentur. The CDU/CSU group's co-chair position is up for election and is scheduled to take place the following Monday.

Niebler has been a member of the European Parliament since 1999, and served as the parliamentary business manager of the CDU/CSU group before becoming co-chair in 2014. In her statement about stepping down from the race, Niebler recommended her party colleague Christian Doleschal as her successor at the head of the group in the EU Parliament.

In late spring, there were intense discussions about potential misuse of EU funds by the 63-year-old politician. The European Parliament rejected a request from the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EuStA) in May to lift the immunity of the MP, but the prosecutor's office continued to pursue the case, seeking to investigate whether Niebler had improperly claimed reimbursement for travel expenses to Strasbourg and Brussels.

The investigation would have been based on information provided by a former employee of Niebler's, who suspected that she had allowed assistants to engage in activities outside their parliamentary duties, one of whom worked exclusively for a party colleague and former MP. Niebler denied the allegations but did not want to make public comments on specific issues.

The presumption of innocence applies, and her parliamentary colleagues followed a recommendation from the Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee, which had speculated that the main witness in the case may have given tips to the prosecutor's office for political reasons. However, EuStA considered the main starting suspicion to be legitimate, in part because the witness provided numerous documents.

Several of Niebler's parliamentary colleagues later expressed dissatisfaction with the committee's handling of the case and Niebler's strategy at the time, which had included publicly promising to be interested in a comprehensive clarification. Niebler herself initially did not respond to requests from the Deutsche Presse-Agentur about her decision.

In a message to her party colleagues, she expressed her joy at having more time for individual dossiers and her work in the delegation for relations with India.