According to a report in the Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano, the European Union used a private agency to distribute €132.88 million to the media before the European elections. It is not known which media outlets received the money.
The article, written by former Corriere della Sera correspondent in Brussels Ivo Caizzi, says that the EU Commission and the European Parliament President worked together to pay media through Havas media, belonging to the Vivendi group. The deal “is not embarrassing only because of the large amount released in 12 months ... but also because of a particular administrative method which, according to the EU leadership, would make it possible to keep secrecy about individual payments and the receiving newspapers. Newspapers and media should instead control how public institutions in the EU spend the money of the taxpayers and not get funded by ‘the controlled’ to avoid doubts of bias and conflicts of interest.”
