The former EU foreign policy chief has resigned as director of the College of Europe, after she was indicted in a corruption investigation related to the awarding of a contract to the institute to train diplomats.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office arrested Mogherini with two other suspects on charges of favoritism in the awarding of a contract to train future diplomats at the College of Europe.
Charges have been formally brought against former head of European diplomacy Federica Mogherini and current director of the College.
Her lawyer said Mogherini has denied any wrongdoing and is cooperating with the investigation.
Mogherini, who headed the EU’s diplomatic service (EEAS) from 2014 to 2019, was questioned on Tuesday by Belgian federal police for ten hours in Bruges, the city where the College of Europe is located, before being released. The investigation continues.
What Federica Mogherini’s lawyer says
Former EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has been indicted in a corruption investigation into the awarding of an EU contract to the College of Europe, which Mogherini heads, AFP reported.
“The interrogation went very well, it lasted too long, but with complete transparency and calm,” said lawyer Mariapaola Kerki.
The timeline of the case
The Italian, a former minister, has been for five years the director of the College of Europe, which trains a large number of European civil servants. Investigators want to establish whether in 2021-2022 the educational institution in question found itself in an advantageous position in a tender for an EEAS contract to train future EU diplomats.
According to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, the investigation concerns suspicions of “fraud and corruption in the context of tenders for public contracts, conflict of interest and violation of professional secrecy”.
In addition to Mogherini, charges have also been brought against two people. They are Cesare Zegretti, co-director of the College of Europe in charge of training and programmes, and Stefanos Sanino, a high-ranking official of the European Commission, who announced yesterday, Wednesday, that he is resigning from his duties.
On her part, . He added that he has “full confidence” that justice will recognize it. According to her lawyer, the lifting of Mogherini’s detention on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday was not accompanied by a measure to restrict her movements.
Police told the three suspects of the charges in the presence of an investigator, and they were then released because the investigator determined there was no “risk of flight,” according to the European public prosecutor’s office.
