GETTY The EU is set to demand Marine Le Pen's National Front repays around £680,000

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The financial rebate is the first overt crackdown against Eurosceptic parties within the Brussels bloc – but the EU chiefs are not revealing the exact rules Marine Le Pen’s party broke. The decision, exposed in a memo and expected to be enforced by Schulz and Manfred Weber, leader of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), is clamping down on the donation of EU funds to parties that actively detest the multi-national body.

An EPP official said: “These foundations are a good way to promote Europe intellectually but then they use the money against Europe.” Despite not directly naming the exact reasons demanding the massive payback, Politico report that some of the infractions include using European funds to finance national parties and referendum campaigns.

The clampdown does not only affect the National Front, with other unnamed parties being fined for not collecting bids on contracts valued at £13,000. In one case, a foundation’s president used its own companies to carry out services for the foundation, and the fees charged were more than 22 per cent of the foundation’s total expenditure. The devastating report shows the MENL alliance, a group of European parties including the National Front, will have to repay the EU parliament £455,000 from its annual grant.

GETTY Marine Le Pen is set to fight the decision as it could financially cripple her party

Two other foundations affiliated with the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy political group led by Le Pen — the Europe of Nations and Freedom, and the Organisation for European Interstate Cooperation — owe the Parliament £211,000 and £31,000 respectively. An EU spokesperson said: “Parties and foundations receive an advance of 85 per cent of the money they think they need during a given year on the basis of a working program they submitted.

GETTY Martin Schulz appears top be clamping down on right wing Eurosceptic parties

“At the end of the year, the parties and foundations submit the bills for the activities they organised to an accountant. Parliament’s administration has another look. "Money that has not been spent or spent on activities not eligible for subsidising will need to be paid back. Or, if all bills are correct … the remaining 15 percent will be paid out.”

Marion Le Pen in pictures Tue, May 9, 2017 Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, niece of defeated French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and a National Front lawmaker, announced that she will not run for re-election in the June legislative elections Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 13 Marion Marechal-Le Pen will announce that she leaves her political mandates, according to the far-right National Front