Croatian MEP’s taxpayer-funded trip to Strasbourg attended by family and friends

Por Mari Eccles — POLITICOPolitics » POLITICO

Croatian MEP’s taxpayer-funded trip to Strasbourg attended by family and friends

The trip raises questions about how the European Parliament monitors spending by lawmakers.

By MARI ECCLES
in Brussels

Illustration by Natália Delgado / POLITICO

Friends and family of a Croatian MEP attended a European Parliament event in Strasbourg for which her office claimed thousands of euros in public money, according to expense claims, photographs and attendance lists seen by POLITICO.

The lawmaker and her political grouping have both said they have followed the applicable rules, but the trip — billed as a health policy event — raises questions about how the European Parliament monitors its lawmakers’ spending. The MEP’s group agreed to the expenses, two people with knowledge of the case told POLITICO.

Romana Jerković, of the center-left Socialists and Democrats group, has organized multiple health policy events during her six years as an MEP. At such events, experts are invited to travel to the European Parliament in either Brussels or Strasbourg on expenses-paid trips, with the political group covering travel, accommodation and food.

Documents reviewed by POLITICO show that members of Jerković’s inner circle — including her sister, an actor acquaintance, and an art historian friend — were listed as staff at the faculty of medicine at the University of Rijeka, or at the Croatian city’s academic hospital, when attending the trip to Strasbourg.

Jerković and her guests, who had traveled from Croatia, also dined at high-end establishments for which they billed the S&D around €1,100 per meal, according to the documents.

“I’ve done nothing wrong,” Jerković told POLITICO when asked why her close friends and family were invited on the trip. “Every cent is accounted for,” she said, adding that the S&D had not found any issue with her conduct. She said later that she had covered her sister’s expenses, including hotel accommodation, plane fares and dinners.

The S&D said it had rechecked the relevant documents and had concluded “the related financial rules were respected.”

Political groups set aside thousands of euros for their lawmakers to organize so-called study visits, in which experts travel to the Parliament, meet MEPs, and discuss policy files and legislative issues. 

The money for those events comes from the EU budget, meaning it is ultimately paid for by the taxpayer. The political groups sign off on their MEPs’ expenses, and the total spend is subject to an annual external audit.

A person with knowledge of the event that Jerković organized, which took place in December 2024, told POLITICO it featured no policy discussions, and no meeting rooms were booked for the entirety of the three-day event. The S&D did not respond to a request for comment on this element.

The case has led to calls for independent auditors to verify how exactly that funding is spent.

“There is a significant lack of oversight over how political groups spend money, particularly how MEPs spend their portion of funds,” said Nick Aiossa, director of the NGO Transparency International EU’s office in Brussels. His organization believes there should be more independent financial oversight from the Parliament’s secretariat, which oversees its administration.

The MEP in question

Jerković is a second-term MEP who has quickly become a respected lawmaker among those working in health policy. A former deputy mayor of Rijeka, she is a doctor of medicine who has taught at the city’s medical school and is currently vice-chair of the Parliament’s public health (SANT) committee. She also heads the MEP Cardiovascular Health Group.

Jerković initially didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment about why her friends and family were invited to the event. Instead, she directed POLITICO to a Parliament webpage about document access.

However, when POLITICO eventually spoke to her in the European Parliament, she insisted she had done nothing wrong.

During the 2024 Strasbourg event, more than a dozen people flew from Croatia for at least three days.

The event would have cost the S&D group upward of €12,000, according to the person with knowledge of the study visit. It included two “working dinners” with Jerković at local restaurants: the critically acclaimed Franco-Belgian L’Eveil des Sens and the canalside gastropub Maison des Tanneurs.

Documents seen by POLITICO show that the group sent invoices worth €1,120 to the S&D group for each of those dinners.

For the reimbursement to be paid out, the group asked for a photo of all the participants at an event with an S&D banner. The S&D did not confirm whether it paid out for any of these particular dinners.

Photos from one of the dinners show Jerković smiling alongside those participating in the visit, and with the S&D banner in the shot, which was described as being about the “challenges and priorities in the Health Union.”

Jerković told POLITICO that all of the people on the trip were there on legitimate business. “They are experts,” she said.

On the list of participants was Renata Jerković, the MEP’s sister. On her Facebook account, Renata Jerković writes that she trained in education and rehabilitation sciences. She is described on the event list as an assistant at the University of Rijeka’s medicine department.

Another attendee, Mirko Soldano, is an actor who has appeared in many Croatian TV series, according to his IMDB page. He’s noted on the attendee sheet as a professor at the University of Rijeka’s faculty of medicine.

Also listed as a participant is Theodor de Canziani, a Croatian art historian. He is identified on the event attendee list as a professor working in the faculty of medicine at the University of Rijeka.

A spokesperson for the University of Rijeka’s faculty of medicine did not respond to multiple requests from POLITICO asking if they had ever employed anyone with those names. None of those names are included on the university’s online list of professors.

A fourth attendee, Branko Vukšić, is the MEP’s local assistant in Croatia, but is named on the attendance sheet as a doctor at KBC Rijeka, a clinical hospital. A fifth attendee, Mario Drufovka, is listed as a doctor at the same institution. He is Renata Jerković’s partner.

KBC Rijeka did not respond to requests for comment.

POLITICO contacted Renata Jerković, Soldano, de Canziani, Vukšić and Drufovka multiple times for comment. None replied.

Some of the other attendees at these events do work in the health field; Gordana Starčević-Klasan, for example, is named as working at the University of Rijeka’s Faculty of Health Studies, while another guest, Iva Zeneral Žuža, is listed as working at the University of Rijeka’s Faculty of Dental Medicine. Both are listed by the university as working there. 

A spokesperson for the S&D said: “After close revision of the files in our possession … we can confirm that applicable financial rules have been respected,” adding: “We do not have further comments to make on this matter.”

“The European Parliament takes the proper use and control of parliamentary funds very seriously,” the European Parliament’s press services said, adding that it cannot comment on individual cases.

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