BRUSSELS — The European Union’s former foreign policy chief faces corruption accusations alongside two other people arrested this week as part of a fraud investigation, prosecutors said Wednesday, in the latest scandal to hit the 27-nation bloc.
Authorities in Belgium made the arrests Tuesday after raiding the offices of the EU diplomatic service in Brussels and a college in Bruges. Federica Mogherini led the EU foreign service from 2014 to 2019 and now serves as the rector of the College of Europe, a prestigious institute of European studies.
Her arrest came as the EU has been urging Ukraine to tackle rampant corruption. It risks tarnishing the EU’s international image just as it seeks to assert influence in negotiations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement that Mogherini, a senior staff member of the College of Europe and a senior official from the European Commission were detained at its request.
“After being questioned by the Belgian Federal Judicial Police, the three individuals were formally notified of the accusations against them,” the EPPO said. “The accusations concern procurement fraud and corruption, conflict of interest and violation of professional secrecy.”
The three were not considered flight risks and were released, the office said.
As the bloc’s top diplomat, Mogherini was responsible for supervising the Iran nuclear talks, leading efforts to improve long-strained relations between Serbia and Kosovo, and a host of other foreign policy and security issues.
Police searched the properties of the suspects, several buildings of the College of Europe and the headquarters of the European External Action Service (EEAS), the EU’s equivalent of a foreign office, which sits at the center of the bloc’s institutions in Brussels, the EPPO said.
No outside actor, or country, has been named so far in the investigation.
Mogherini did not comment on the allegations, but her lawyer, Mariapaola Cherchi, told The Associated Press that her client was “transparent, clear and serene” during her 10-hour questioning. She said she was confident Mogherini would be cleared “on the basis of such a clear interrogation, without any tension on either side.”
The College of Europe said it will “fully cooperate” with the investigation.
“The College remains committed to the highest standards of integrity, fairness, and compliance — both in academic and administrative matters,” it said.
The EPPO, an independent public organization of the EU, said it had “strong suspicions” of fraud in the awarding of a tender to run a 2021-22 training program at the EU Diplomatic Academy for junior diplomats. The former vice president of the European Commission, Josep Borrell, ran the EEAS.
The sums involved are relatively small. In establishing the EU Diplomatic Academy, the EU allocated 1.7 million euros ($1.98 million) to cover spending on the training program from July 2024 to June 2025.
Other corruption scandals
The corruption case targeting Mogherini is the latest to hit European institutions.
Revelations of a cash-for-influence scheme dubbed Qatargate, involving high-profile center-left EU lawmakers, assistants, lobbyists and their relatives, emerged in 2022. Qatari and Moroccan officials were alleged to have paid bribes to influence decision-making. Both countries deny involvement. No one has been convicted or is in pretrial detention, and prospects for a trial are unclear.
In March this year, several people were arrested in a probe linked to the Chinese company Huawei, which is suspected of bribing EU lawmakers.
Last year, the aide of prominent far-right EU lawmaker Maximilian Krah was arrested in a separate case. German prosecutors alleged the aide was a Chinese agent. Krah, who has since switched to the federal legislature of his native Germany, denied knowledge of the suspicions against his former employee.
Petrequin and Cook write for the Associated Press. Petrequin reported from Paris. AP writer Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed to this report.
The post Former EU foreign policy chief arrested in latest scandal to hit the bloc appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
