German MEPs demand halt to European funding for Elon Musk's companies

Elon Musk has received over euro300 million in EU funding for his companies, according to a document published yesterday by German newspapers Der Standard, Zeit and Stern. The response from the European Commission following an official request from German MEP Daniel Freund (Green Party) shows that companies controlled by the American billionaire have received European funding, even though Elon Musk has repeatedly supported European extremist parties, including the AfD (Alternative fur Deutschland).

According to the document presented by the cited sources, a Tesla subsidiary has received euro159 million through the European "Connecting Europe" program to build electric vehicle charging stations. In addition, the company SpaceX, also owned by Elon Musk, received 177 million euros for the launch of the satellites of the European Galileo navigation system, using Falcon 9 rockets. In addition to these amounts, until October 2023, the X platform (formerly Twitter), also owned by Musk, also received 630,000 euros for paid advertising services from European institutions.

The European Commission announced that, starting with October 2023, it had no longer contracted advertising services on the X platform. Regarding the launches with Falcon 9 rockets, the European executive stressed that these were an exceptional measure, necessary due to repeated delays in the commissioning of the European Ariane 6 rocket.

However, it remains uncertain whether these figures represent the full picture of the financial support provided. The Commission indicated that more detailed information will only be available in June 2025, with the publication of data for the 2024 budget year, within the EU's public financial transparency system.

This information has sparked strong reactions in the European Parliament. According to the cited sources, MEP Daniel Freund called for the immediate suspension of all payments to companies led by Elon Musk.

"This man is a declared enemy of European values. It is unacceptable that the European Union pays hundreds of millions to the richest man in the world. I believe that we must apply a clear principle: not a single euro from the EU budget for those who act against the European Union," Freund said, according to German media.

The controversies surrounding Elon Musk do not stop there. Within the EU, his figure is increasingly contested due to his closeness to Trump, but also his explicit support for the German extremist party AfD. In addition, his company X is already the target of several investigations into possible violations of European legislation in the field of digital services, in particular regarding the fight against hate speech and disinformation.