Le Pen ordered to repay €300,000 to the EU

Marine Le Pen, the French far-right leader, must repay nearly €300,000 (£263,000) to the European Parliament for funds paid incorrectly to an assistant, an EU court ruled yesterday.

The General Court of the European Union, the bloc’s second-highest tribunal, rejected a bid by Ms Le Pen to overturn a ruling that she had wrongly used parliamentary funds to pay an aide who was based at her party’s headquarters in Paris. Ms Le Pen signalled her intention to take the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union, the bloc’s highest court.