EU Money Reached Muslim Brotherhood-Linked Network Through the Back Door

BRUSSELS - The EU stopped funding FEMYSO directly years ago. The money kept flowing anyway - through a middleman.

The European Commission has confirmed that EU funds were passed on to the Muslim youth network FEMYSO via a Belgian organisation, according to Swedish MEP Charlie Weimers of the Sweden Democrats.

Critics have long described FEMYSO as the European youth wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. The network denies it.

Weimers wrote on X on Thursday evening that he had received an answer from the Commission. According to him, the responsible commissioner confirms that more than half a million kronor went to Lawyers Without Borders, which then passed the money on to FEMYSO.

The Commission's reply has not been published. The details come from Weimers and from French MEP Marion Maréchal, niece of Marine Le Pen, who says she received a similar answer.

Maréchal wrote that the Commission confirmed 48,600 euros had been transferred to FEMYSO - roughly 540,000 Swedish kronor.

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Paris confirms the arrangement

The French government backs up the story. In a written answer to the National Assembly published on 10 November, France's Europe ministry says FEMYSO has received no direct EU funding since 2021.

But the ministry says the information suggests FEMYSO did receive money indirectly from the EU budget in 2026. That happens when organisations holding EU grants hand part of the money on to others as sub-grants.

The ministry points to the EU programme DEAR and a project called Empower Action, which aims to strengthen young Muslims in Europe against "structural racism".

According to the ministry, FEMYSO may also have received indirect EU support for conferences around the European Day Against Islamophobia in Brussels on 21 September this year. France has asked the Commission for tighter checks.

Lawyers Without Borders - Avocats Sans Frontières - lists FEMYSO as a partner in Empower Action on its own project page. The project runs for 18 months, from January 2026 to July 2027.

Named in Parliament's resolution

FEMYSO is a Brussels-based network of Muslim youth and student associations across Europe.

In October the European Parliament adopted a resolution against Islamist infiltration by 381 votes to 167. The resolution names FEMYSO and links it to the Muslim Brotherhood.

FEMYSO "categorically" rejects the accusations. It says it is independent, run by young volunteers and works for equality and fundamental rights.

Weimers is not convinced. "The link between FEMYSO and the Brotherhood is crystal clear," he writes, demanding that the EU claw the money back.

Born at a Swedish government conference

The network has a Swedish connection. Its own member list includes the association Göteborgs Unga Muslimer - Young Muslims of Gothenburg.

And by FEMYSO's own account, the network was founded in 1996 after a conference organised by the Swedish government.

It is not the first time FEMYSO and EU money have landed in trouble. In autumn 2021 the Council of Europe pulled a campaign with the slogan "freedom is in hijab". It had been developed in workshops with FEMYSO and was partly paid for by the EU.

After protests from France, the Commission said it had not approved the campaign's images and was looking into whether money could be reclaimed, Deutsche Welle reported.

Since then, according to the French government, FEMYSO has received no direct EU support. Instead the money has been able to reach the network through intermediaries.

Sweden is one of the biggest net contributors to the EU budget. That means Swedish taxpayers' money is part of what gets handed out through these grant programmes.

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