North Macedonia’s government and opposition are trading accusations of misusing millions of euros from the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme, which funds youth and education projects, as the country heads toward local elections.
The ruling VMRO-DPMNE party claimed that individuals close to the ruling Social Democrats (SDSM) received grants of around 200,000 euros “as if it were nothing,” including one project described as “training donkeys and making cheese.”
“Some 205,000 euros from Erasmus+ went to the brother of an SDSM lawmaker,” said Valentin Manasievski of VMRO-DPMNE.
SDSM in opposition rejected the allegations and countered that VMRO-DPMNE itself had shielded the National Agency responsible for implementing Erasmus+. The party said the agency’s acting director had been linked to a scandal investigated by the EU’s anti-fraud office, OLAF. “The government was caught red-handed, with its hands in EU funds,” SDSM said in a statement.
Goran Velkovski, the brother of a former SDSM lawmaker, denied claims the money went to animal training projects. He said a vocational school in Kavadarci received financing for practical training in Croatia, including work with horses and donkeys.
SDSM cited an OLAF report submitted to North Macedonia’s prosecutor’s office, which pointed to “well-founded suspicions of abuse of more than 2 million euros” and identified over 50 individuals and organisations in North Macedonia and five EU member states.
VMRO-DPMNE fired back, accusing SDSM-linked figures of benefiting from Erasmus+ grants, including Ljubomir Frckoski, a former rector who allegedly oversaw part of a 200,000-euro project while serving as ambassador to the United Nations in New York.
The ruling party has demanded a full criminal investigation to uncover what it says is a scheme that siphoned off up to 8 million euros in EU money.