The community bubble is in shock this morning after a police raid on the offices of the European External Action Service (EEAS) in Brussels and at the prestigious College of Europe in Bruges, two pillars – by management and by principles – of the Union’s international policy.
According to media reports such as the Belgian newspaper three people have already been arrested as part of an operation for alleged financing fraud. The investigation is being directed by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), which reviews the records, detailing that they also affect the private residences of those investigated. In all of these scenarios, various documentation has been confiscated as evidence.
The operation, the note states, is part of an investigation into alleged fraud related to EU-funded training for young diplomats.
What is investigated
In the focus of the Prosecutor’s Office is the EU Diplomatic Academy project, a nine-month training program for young diplomats from the 27 Member States, which was awarded by the EEAS to , in Belgium, in a tender for the 2021-2022 academic year. It is a reference postgraduate school for anyone who wants to dedicate themselves to foreign relations and, in particular, European relations, since its foundation in 1949. Its former students include important politicians and officials of community institutions. It currently has as its rector the Italian Federica Mogherini, who was precisely the head of European diplomacy until 2019. She began a second five-year term in Bruges this same year.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office suspects that in the program’s bidding process “ready competition was violated” and that “confidential information related to the ongoing recruitment was shared with one of the participating candidates.”
Investigators are trying to find out whether the College of Europe was informed in advance about the selection criteria for the tender process and whether it was informed that it would be awarded the project before the official publication of the tender notice, media outlets abound such as . “There are strong suspicions that confidential information about the contract was shared with one of the candidates participating in the tender,” adds this medium.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has requested the lifting of the immunity of several suspects, which was granted and has given rise to the police actions known today. The facts were initially reported to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), which also supports the investigation. The investigation is also supported by the Belgian investigating judge in West Flanders, Ypres district, as a local counterpart.
The authorities are now seeking to determine whether crimes of contracting fraud, corruption, conflict of interest and violation of professional secrecy have been committed.
When did everything happen?
The facts investigated date back to the years in which the EEAS was directed by the Spaniard, while the College of Europe was already chaired by Mogherini, former head of the EEAS. Today, the current high representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and vice president in the European Commission is the Estonian Kaja Kallas, who has not yet publicly assessed what happened, nor have Borrell or Mogherini.
The episodes in the focus of the European Prosecutor’s Office were reported to the European anti-corruption agency (OLAF), as they could constitute fraud in public procurement, corruption, conflict of interest and violation of professional secrecy.
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