Virginie Joron, MEP for Patriots for Europe has called out what she qualified as "false claims" alleging that she was placed on a blacklist by the European Parliament. So, is there any weight to this assertion?
French MEP Virginie Joron, a member of the far-right group Patriots for Europe group, has said she will pursue legal action over what she describes as false claims that she is on a European Parliament "blacklist."
Joron, also a member of France's National Rally party, announced on X she would file a complaint against "several media outlets" for deliberately disseminating false and defamatory information, in particular the claim she was placed on such a blacklist.
The MEP insists the allegation is "completely false", saying it has been used to politically discredit her ahead of municipal elections in Strasbourg, where she is running as a mayoral candidate.
In a statement, Joron said the President of the European Parliament had confirmed in writing “that no blacklist exists, that I have never appeared on one, and that I am not subject to any ban.”
The Cube, Euronews' fact-checking team, contacted Joron's representatives for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Where did the 'blacklist' claim come from?
References to a supposed blacklist can be traced back to a 2021 article by EUobserver, which reported that the European Parliament had sanctioned Joron alongside seven other MEPs for pariticpating in what it described as fake election-observation trips.
The MEPs were accused of taking part in observation missions linked to Russian "electoral processes" in Crimea — which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.
The European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE), a network of election monitoring and democracy NGOs, lists Joron as taking part in Russia's 2020 "all-Russian voting" on constitutional amendments as part of a group of foreign politicians it identifies as politically biased "international experts" rather than independent election observers.
The Cube analysed an expense report showing that one of the MEPs, Thierry Mariani, took part in election-observation missions in Crimea in 2020 and Kazakstan in 2021.
According to the document, Mariani was invited by the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and by Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which subsequently paid for flights and hotels. The Cube could not find any publicly available corresponding document for Joron.
French broadcaster France Info reported that, as a result of their participation, the eight MEPs were excluded from participating in official EU Election Observation Missions (EOMs) and risked suspension However, the measure was described as largely symbolic, as EOMs are primarily composed of specialist observers.
Was there ever a formal blacklist?
The EPDE's report accuses Russia of manufacturing international legitimacy by selectively inviting foreign politicians, such as Joron, to act as "international observers" rather than relying on internationally recognised missions such as those organsied by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
However, a source familiar with procedures told The Cube that the MEP's were not "blacklisted" and no such formal list has existed.
Joron is also not currently banned from taking part in observation missions organised by the European Parliament.
Seperately, several MEPs, including Virginie Joron, were included on a Ukrainian sanctions list in 2021 under a National Security and Defence Council decision enacted by presidential decree, a decision legal analysts say was linked to visits to Russian-occupied Crimea.