Luxembourg MEP Kartheiser faces EU Parliament probe over Russia trip

One of Luxembourg's six members of the European Parliament has been placed under formal ethics scrutiny over his contacts with Moscow, after Parliament President Roberta Metsola asked the assembly's conduct watchdog to examine whether Fernand Kartheiser breached its code of conduct.

In a letter dated 11 June 2026, first reported by POLITICO and corroborated by The Kyiv Independent and other outlets, Metsola referred the case to the Parliament's Advisory Committee on the Conduct of Members, the eight-strong body that polices how lawmakers behave. The trigger was Kartheiser's attendance at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum — an event often dubbed 'Putin's Davos' — in early June, and a declaration on normalising European Union–Russia relations that he subsequently circulated to fellow MEPs.

For Luxembourg, the episode lands awkwardly. The Grand Duchy sends just six lawmakers to Brussels and Strasbourg, so a conduct case against any single member casts a long shadow over a delegation that prides itself on a quiet, consensual reputation in the EU institutions.

What Metsola has asked the watchdog to examine

According to the letter as reported, Metsola raised several distinct concerns. She wrote that Kartheiser's activities, including the declaration he distributed, could give a misleading impression of the Parliament's position toward Russia.

Kartheiser's conduct, Metsola wrote, may “create the impression that there exists an informal channel of communication between the European Parliament and the (Russian) State Duma.”

The Parliament has suspended formal ties with the State Duma since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Metsola noted that the declaration Kartheiser shared made no mention of that war, and asked the committee to assess whether he had properly disclosed his meetings with representatives of a third country on the Parliament's public transparency platform, and whether he had accepted money, compensation or travel paid for by outside parties.

The scale of those contacts is central to the case. Per Metsola's letter, Kartheiser held four videoconferences and four in-person meetings with Russian politicians, two of the latter taking place inside Russia.

What could happen next

The procedure is deliberate. Once the Advisory Committee has investigated and reported, the President can decide on sanctions. The available penalties escalate from a formal reprimand to measures that bite:

• forfeiture of the daily subsistence allowance;
• temporary suspension from parliamentary activities;
• removal from representative or office-holding roles;
• withdrawal of access to confidential documents.

None of those steps is automatic, and Kartheiser retains the presumption that no breach has been established. The committee's findings, not the referral itself, will determine whether any sanction follows.

A repeat appearance under scrutiny

This is not the first time Kartheiser's Russia ties have drawn institutional fire. A former Luxembourg diplomat and the first-ever MEP for the national-conservative Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR), he took his seat in July 2024. Less than a year later, in mid-2025, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group expelled him over a self-funded trip to Moscow, where he had been invited by the State Duma to discuss bilateral relations and the war in Ukraine.

The group's co-chairmen, Nicola Procaccini and Patryk Jaki, were blunt at the time.

“By travelling to Putin's Russia, Fernand Kartheiser has crossed a red line for the ECR Group,” the co-chairmen said.

Kartheiser has consistently cast his trips as 'parliamentary diplomacy' aimed at peace, and has insisted he pays his own way. “Given that the European Parliament is blocking MEPs' diplomatic efforts to meet with the Russian Federation, I am funding this mission to Moscow myself,” he said as the ECR moved to remove him.

He has reacted to the new inquiry with defiance, describing it as ‘surreal’ in comments to Russian outlet RT and arguing that the EU is penalising dialogue with Moscow even as it seeks a role in any future Ukraine settlement.

Why the case matters beyond Luxembourg

The referral fits a wider pattern. Since the Qatargate corruption scandal, the Parliament has tightened its internal rules and grown markedly more assertive about foreign-influence risks, and Metsola has previously signalled readiness to confront Russia-linked conduct among members. Treating an individual lawmaker's outreach to Moscow as a potential code-of-conduct matter — rather than mere political controversy — marks how far the institution's tolerance has narrowed.

For the Grand Duchy, the stakes are reputational. Luxembourg's outsized influence in Brussels rests less on the size of its delegation than on its standing as a reliable, rules-respecting partner. A conduct inquiry into one of its six MEPs is, in that sense, a direct test of that standing — and one whose outcome now rests with the Parliament's ethics committee.