BRUSSELS: The EU’s former foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has been charged along with two others in a probe into “fraud and corruption” over contracts to train future European diplomats, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Mogherini, who was high representative for foreign affairs from 2014 to 2019 and now leads the College of Europe graduate school, was arrested on Tuesday following raids at the elite school and on the premises of the EU’s EEAS diplomatic service.
The 52-year-old Italian was detained for questioning along with the school’s deputy rector as well as Stefano Sannino, a senior EU official who was secretary general of the European External Action Service from 2021 to 2024.
After being questioned by Belgian police, “the three individuals were formally notified of the accusations against them,” said the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) which is overseeing the probe.
“The accusations concern procurement fraud and corruption, conflict of interest and violation of professional secrecy,” it added in a statement.
Not considered a flight risk, all three were released from custody overnight, a spokesperson for the prosecutors’ office said.
The EPPO is investigating suspicions of fraud related to an EU-funded training scheme for junior diplomats, known as the European Union Diplomatic Academy.
The program was awarded by the EEAS to the College of Europe in Belgium in the period 2021-2022, and the probe focuses on whether the tender process was skewed to favor the school.
Mogherini has headed the College of Europe since 2020, and in 2022 also took the helm of the EU Diplomatic Academy.
The contract involved was worth some €650,000 ($750,000), according to a European source.
Carried out by Belgian federal police at the EPPO’s request, Tuesday’s searches targeted the College of Europe campus in the Belgian city of Bruges, the Brussels premises of the EEAS and the houses of suspects.
The European Commission has confirmed raids at the EEAS, saying the probe focused on “activities that took place before in the previous mandate.”
The current EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, took over the post a year ago from Mogherini’s successor, Josep Borrell.
The College of Europe has vowed to “fully cooperate” with the probe, stressing its commitment “to the highest standards of integrity, fairness, and compliance — both in academic and administrative matters.”
The EPPO is the independent public prosecution office of the EU, responsible for investigating crimes against the bloc’s financial interests.
The probe, which is being led by a judge in Western Belgium, is also supported by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), to which the accusations were first reported.
EU ex-top diplomat charged in ‘fraud and corruption’ probe
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EU ex-top diplomat charged in ‘fraud and corruption’ probe
- EU’s former foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini was arrested on Tuesday following raids at the elite College of Europe graduate school
Philippines says China fired flares toward its patrol plane in the disputed South China Sea
- “The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources aircraft recorded video footage of three flares fired from the reef toward the aircraft during its lawful overflight,” said the Philippine coast guard
- The Philippine patrol plane spotted a Chinese hospital ship, two Chinese coast guard ships and 29 suspected militia ships anchored in the waters off Subi
MANILA: Chinese forces fired three flares from an island toward a Philippine plane undertaking a routine patrol Saturday in the disputed South China Sea, but the incident did not cause any problem and the aircraft proceeded with its surveillance mission, the Philippine coast guard said.
It was not immediately clear how far the flares that Filipino officials said were fired from the Chinese-occupied Subi Reef were from the Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft of the Philippine fisheries bureau.
Chinese officials did not immediately comment on the incident, Beijing has claimed virtually the entire South China Sea, a key global trade route, and has vowed to staunchly defend its sovereignty. Chinese forces has fired flares from its occupied islands and from its aircraft as a warning for foreign planes to move away from what it calls its airspace in the disputed waters.
“The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources aircraft recorded video footage of three flares fired from the reef toward the aircraft during its lawful overflight,” said the Philippine coast guard, which carried out Saturday’s surveillance flight with the fisheries agency.
“These flights aim to monitor the marine environment, assess the status of fisheries resources and ensure the safety and welfare of Filipino fishermen in the West Philippine Sea,” the coast guard said, using the Philippine name for the stretch of the South China Sea that Manila claims.
The Philippine patrol plane spotted a Chinese hospital ship, two Chinese coast guard ships and 29 suspected militia ships anchored in the waters off Subi, the Philippine coast guard said.
Subi is one of seven disputed and mostly submerged reefs which China turned more than a decade ago into what are now island bases in the Spratlys, the most hotly disputed region of the South China Sea. The artificial islands are protected by a missile system and three of them have military-grade runways, according to US and Philippine security officials.
Aside from Subi, the Philippine patrol plane flew near six other disputed islands, reefs and atolls, including Sabina, an uninhabited disputed shoal, where it monitored a Chinese navy ship. “This vessel repeatedly issued radio challenges against the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources aircraft while it was flying well within Philippine sovereign rights,” the Philippine coast guard said.
“All safe and mission accomplished,” Jay Tarriela of the Philippine coast guard said of Saturday’s surveillance flight.
The United States has no territorial claims in the sea passage but has patrolled the waters for decades and repeatedly warned it’s obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have also been involved in the long-seething disputes in the resource-rich waters.
