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Former EU top diplomat, senior Commission official held in fraud investigation

Tuesday, 02 December 2025 6:18 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 02 December 2025 6:18 PM ]

Federica Mogherini, the former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. (File photo)

Former EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Stefano Sannino, head of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for West Asia, North Africa and the Persian Gulf, have been arrested as part of a fraud investigation.

Mogherini and Sannino were among the three individuals taken for questioning on Tuesday morning after Belgian authorities searched the offices of the European External Action Service (EEAS), the College of Europe in Bruges, and several private residences.

An employee of the College of Europe, where Mogherini serves as rector, was also detained, a spokesperson for the institution said.

The three were detained “as part of a probe into suspected fraud related to EU-funded training for junior diplomats,” the European public prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

The raids, conducted at the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), focus on suspected irregularities in an EU-funded initiative.

In a statement, the EPPO said the investigation concerns the EU’s Diplomatic Academy, a nine-month program for young diplomats, which was awarded to the College of Europe under a public tender between 2021 and 2022.

Authorities are examining whether the EEAS breached tendering rules by sharing information with the College before the project was officially awarded.

The EPPO said there are “strong suspicions” that EU rules on fair competition were breached during the tendering process and that “confidential information related to the ongoing procurement was shared with one of the candidates participating in the tender.”

The office added that the facts “could constitute procurement fraud, corruption, conflict of interest and violation of professional secrecy,” noting that “The investigation is ongoing to clarify the facts and assess whether any criminal offences have occurred.”

A spokesperson for the EEAS confirmed the police raids on the buildings, highlighting that the case relates to activities from “the previous mandate.”

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The EEAS is currently led by High Representative Kaja Kallas, who succeeded Josep Borrell in December 2025. Borrell had taken office following Mogherini’s departure in 2019.

As High Representative, Mogherini headed the EEAS and directed the bloc’s foreign policy between 2014 and 2019.

Sannino is a prominent senior EU official who was EEAS secretary general from 2021 to 2024. In February, he assumed the role of director of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for West Asia, North Africa and the Persian Gulf (DG MENA), created to strengthen the bloc’s relations with its neighboring regions.

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