BRUSSELS: The EU\u2019s former foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has been charged along with two others in a probe into \u201cfraud and corruption\u201d over contracts to train future European diplomats, prosecutors said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s EEAS diplomatic service.<\/p>\n
The 52-year-old Italian was detained for questioning along with the school\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
After being questioned by Belgian police, \u201cthe three individuals were formally notified of the accusations against them,\u201d said the European Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office (EPPO) which is overseeing the probe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe accusations concern procurement fraud and corruption, conflict of interest and violation of professional secrecy,\u201d it added in a statement.<\/p>\n
Not considered a flight risk, all three were released from custody overnight, a spokesperson for the prosecutors\u2019 office said.<\/p>\n
The EPPO is investigating suspicions of fraud related to an EU-funded training scheme for junior diplomats, known as the European Union Diplomatic Academy.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Mogherini has headed the College of Europe since 2020, and in 2022 also took the helm of the EU Diplomatic Academy.<\/p>\n
The contract involved was worth some \u20ac650,000 ($750,000), according to a European source.<\/p>\n
Carried out by Belgian federal police at the EPPO\u2019s request, Tuesday\u2019s searches targeted the College of Europe campus in the Belgian city of Bruges, the Brussels premises of the EEAS and the houses of suspects.<\/p>\n
The European Commission has confirmed raids at the EEAS, saying the probe focused on \u201cactivities that took place before in the previous mandate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The current EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, took over the post a year ago from Mogherini\u2019s successor, Josep Borrell.<\/p>\n
The College of Europe has vowed to \u201cfully cooperate\u201d with the probe, stressing its commitment \u201cto the highest standards of integrity, fairness, and compliance \u2014 both in academic and administrative matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
The EPPO is the independent public prosecution office of the EU, responsible for investigating crimes against the bloc\u2019s financial interests.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRUSSELS: The EU\u2019s former foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has been charged along with two others in a probe into \u201cfraud and corruption\u201d 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 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":90512,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90513,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90499\/revisions\/90513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}