EU Commission: Hundreds of millions of EU funds go to Elon Musk’s companies
Over the past five years, the European Commission has transferred more than €330 million to companies owned by U.S. billionaire Elon Musk. This is revealed in the Commission’s response to my written question. According to that reply, around €180 million went to the space company SpaceX, €158 million to Tesla for charging infrastructure, and €630,000 to the short messaging platform X (formerly Twitter) for advertising. Musk has repeatedly attacked the EU verbally, displayed a Nazi salute, and actively supported the far-right AfD during the election campaign.
Daniel Freund, Green MEP and spokesperson on budgetary control, comments:
“It is unacceptable that Musk, who repeatedly and openly opposes the values and institutions of the EU, is receiving millions from the EU budget. Elon Musk has proven through both words and actions that he is an enemy of European democracy, the rule of law, and independent media. Those who deliberately spread anti-European propaganda, support extremist parties, and mock democratic institutions must not be rewarded with hundreds of millions of euros from EU funds.”
Full response from the European Commission:
(Machine translated from German)
DEP-000905/2025
Answer from Piotr Serafin on behalf of the European Commission (12 May 2025)
The Commission would like to refer the Honourable Member to the publicly accessible Financial Transparency System (FTS). Through the FTS, the Commission provides information on recipients of EU funds under direct management. Data for the 2024 financial year will be published in June 2025.
According to the FTS, there are three ongoing grants awarded to Tesla Motors Netherlands BV under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) in 2023. These are part of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility (AFIF) for installing long-distance EV charging stations along the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). The funding is provided per charging unit and relevant network connection. The individual project amounts are:
- 21-EU-TC-Tesla EV charging (Cohesion) – €14,940,000
- 21-EU-TC-Tesla EV charging (General) – €133,780,000
- 21-EU-TG-Tesla EV charging II – €9,860,000
In 2024, SpaceX was exceptionally contracted by the European Space Agency (ESA) on behalf of the Commission to launch two long-planned pairs of Galileo satellites (Europe’s satellite navigation system). This was due to delays in the launch of Ariane 6, the standard Galileo rocket. The contract value was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. Ariane 6 became operational in July 2024.
Since X became owned by Elon Musk, the Commission (including all services and representations in Member States) has spent around €630,000 on paid advertisements on the platform. Since October 2023, the Commission has suspended all paid advertising and services on X. The suspension remains in effect.
More information:
https://ec.europa.eu/budget/financial-transparency-system/index_en.html
https://cinea.ec.europa.eu/funding-opportunities/calls-proposals/cef-transport-alternative-fuels-infrastructure-facility-afif-call-proposal_en
Those who deliberately spread anti-European propaganda, support extremist parties, and mock democratic institutions must not be rewarded with hundreds of millions of euros from EU funds.