Three senior European Union figures have been officially charged for alleged fraud involving EU funds.
They are: Federica Mogherini, the current head of the College of Europe and Stefano Sannino, director general of the European Commission’s Directorate General for the Middle East and North Africa; and Cesare Zegretti, co-director of the College of Europe’s executive education, training and projects office.
Yesterday, the Belgian public prosecutor detained the eurocrats on suspicion of corruption at the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Brussels.
“After being questioned by the Belgian Federal Judicial Police (FGP West-Vlaanderen), the three individuals were formally notified of the accusations against them,” the EPPO stated in a press release.
“The accusations concern procurement fraud and corruption, conflict of interest and violation of professional secrecy.
“They were released, as they are not considered a flight risk.
“No further details can be made public about this ongoing investigation, in order not to endanger its outcome”, it added and said: “All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty by the competent Belgian courts of law.”
The probe centres on allegations of irregularities in a public tender process for the EU Diplomatic Academy, an annual training programme for junior diplomats funded by the European External Action Service (EEAS) and located in Bruges.
The core allegation is that confidential tender criteria (for example, selection requirements) were leaked to the college, breaching fair competition rules under Article 169 of the EU Financial Regulation, potentially skewing the outcome in the college’s favour.
Investigators have also focused on the circumstances surrounding the college’s €3.2 million purchase of a building on Spanjaardstraat in Bruges. That houses diplomats who attend the academy, four people with knowledge of the probe told Euractiv.
The academy is funded by the EEAS as part of broader EU diplomatic training initiatives. The college, a recipient of substantial EU-related funding across its operations, was one of several higher education institutions eligible to bid.
According to the journalist and researcher Thomas Fazi, who called the College of Europe “one of the central hubs of the EU’s academic propaganda branch”, it has received €70 million from the European Commission alone over the past decade.
Created by the Lisbon Treaty and operational since 2010, the EEAS is in practice the European foreign ministry, currently presided over by the Estonian Kaja Kallas. She is the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC.
While the College of Europe is a prestigious and prominent institution in and of itself, the suspects are all top profiles in elite European circles.
Mogherini, a Socialist, is a former High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy between 2014 and 2019. She currently serves as rector of the College of Europe, a job some say was handed to her as a parting gift, a reward for her services, as she had no academic experience.
Sannino served as Secretary-General of the EEAS between 2021 and 2024 before taking up his current role at the EC.
He received the Transexualia award for his support for the social inclusion of trans people and the LGBT Andalucía award for his efforts in the fight against homophobia as ambassador in Spain.
Zegretti, like the other suspects, is of Italian decent. Prior to his current role, he worked in European companies specialised in providing services to European and international institutions in the area of safety and security. He also worked for a progressive NGO on discrimination within the EU and EU foreign relations.
With the three suspects and the institutions involved so well-known in eurocrat circles, the allegations are being widely discussed.
They received particular attention from the Patriots of Europe in the European Parliament and Hungarians, who were quick to point out this was the latest in a long list of growing scandals in elite EU circles.
Zoltan Kovacs, international spokesman for Hungary, noted on X: “The EU’s prestigious ‘finishing school’ for Eurocrats now under investigation for insider access to tenders? You can’t make this up.
“Funny how Brussels lectures everyone on ‘rule of law’ while its own institutions look more like a crime series than a functioning union,” he added.
Kinga Gál, Vice-President of the Patriots group said: “The hypocrisy in Brussels is staggering.”
She added that the EU wanted to block access to EU funds over alleged rule of law issues while “yet another corruption scandal has just erupted in Brussels”.
🚨 Qatargate. Pfizergate. NGOgate. Now EEAS fraud.
Cash in suitcases 💼 | Deleted messages 🗑️ | €750M for NGO lobbying 💸 | Rigged tenders 📑
The pattern is clear: Brussels has an accountability crisis.
Patriots for Europe demands a full parliamentary inquiry. European… pic.twitter.com/6lc8wTDMiI
— Patriots for Europe (@PatriotsEP) December 2, 2025
