In Austria, the public prosecutor's office carried out searches in the finance and interior ministries on Wednesday.

The reason is the suspicion of misuse of EU funding by officials from these houses within the framework of an association in which they worked part-time.

Stephen Lowenstein

Political correspondent based in Vienna.

  • Follow I follow

The association "Agency for European Integration and Economic Development" (AEI) or a limited company founded by it organized EU partner projects primarily in the area of ​​security and in the fight against illegal migration and people smugglers.

Members of the association were at times several ministries as well as the province of Burgenland.

Ministry of the Interior filed a complaint

The offices of a department head in the Ministry of Finance and an employee of the Federal Criminal Police Office, who has been on sick leave for several months, were searched.

This confirmed the finance and interior ministries, who stressed that they fully support the investigators.

The officials have been temporarily suspended.

According to media reports, rooms of the association and private apartments were also searched.

Accordingly, the focus is on a transfer of around half a million euros from the club to the detective.

The Ministry of the Interior filed the complaint.

The head of the association and GmbH - said head of finance department - used to be the press spokeswoman for an ÖVP politician and former state secretary, the three supervisory boards were employees of former FPÖ government politicians or local FPÖ officials.

The structures are therefore attributed to this political camp in the Austrian media.

Especially since the foundation of the association by the Ministry of the Interior took place during the time of an ÖVP-FPÖ coalition in 2003 and later the scope of the activity increased significantly during the time of the second, turquoise-blue ÖVP-FPÖ government (2017-2019).

AEI Managing Director: Unfounded allegations

The activities of the AEI have been the subject of parliamentary questions from Green MP David Stögmüller for some time.

One details the political affiliations of AEI personnel.

Reference is made to the annual accounts, according to which the assets of the association have risen suddenly from 581,000 euros in 2017 since the formation of the turquoise-blue coalition: to 9.2 million euros (2018), 15.5 million euros (2019), 22.9 million euros (2020).

According to the government's response, 50 employees of the Ministry of Finance have part-time jobs at the AEI, as well as 15 employees of the Ministry of the Interior.

By the end of last year, however, all ministries had left the association.

The Greens politician Stögmüller also said now: "Highly dubious" is the fact that the financial resources of the AEI have increased by tens of millions.

They want to deal with the matter in the ÖVP committee of inquiry.

As early as October 2021, the managing director of the association rejected "unfounded allegations" against the AEI and criticized "party political influence".

According to her information, the agency "raised and successfully implemented twinning and other EU-funded projects for over 200 million euros with a main focus on the Western Balkans".

The projects served to help the EU grow together and created comparable standards.

"The AEI projects have also made a significant contribution to paving the way for Austrian companies to successfully enter the markets of the new member states."