Anonymous staff at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) have accused its president, Séamus Boland, of “outrageous lies” over his account of a corruption row and of an attempt to identify the authors of letters alleging contract-rigging by the committee’s secretary-general.
The latest letter, signed “All United Against Corruption” and circulated to members and staff, was reported by Rapporteur on October 2.
Its authors, who describe themselves as staff from human resources, finance and IT, say they will not stop “until the senior leadership team have been moved aside and prosecuted to the full extend [sic] of the law”.
The allegations remain unproven. Neither Boland nor secretary-general Isabelle Le Galo Flores has been charged.
The dispute began in early March, when about 50 anonymous letters signed “staff representatives” appeared on desks at the Brussels-based advisory body.
Some, according to contemporary reporting, were also delivered to private homes.
The letters alleged that Le Galo Flores, a French-Spanish national who in December 2023 became the committee’s first female secretary-general, had misappropriated public funds and channelled contracts to friends and associates.
She joined the EESC from the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation, which she had directed since 2014.
One version said she seemed to “handle the Committee like her own private company”.
A photograph said to show her with successful bidders was enclosed. Le Galo Flores has declined to comment.
Boland, an Irish farmer from County Offaly who ran the campaign group Irish Rural Link before being elected president on October 22, 2025, wrote to staff two days later that he took the matter “very seriously” and was acting with the competent authorities.
On March 5 he sent a note marked strictly confidential to two security officials, instructing them to gather the letters and “collect all elements that could help to identify the possible perpetrator”.
The note authorised them to obtain documents, request information, interview staff and carry out on-the-spot checks, and said the file was being compiled for transmission to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). OLAF has opened an examination.
The EESC says the president referred the matter proactively. Separate reporting has said at least three staff had already notified OLAF about Le Galo Flores’ conduct over the previous two years.
Staff unions called the security review a “witch-hunt” and said it lacked a clear statutory basis.
On May 26 three unions lodged a complaint with European Ombudsman Teresa Anjinho, who took office in February 2025.
Cristiano Sebastiani of Renouveau & Démocratie said staff feared “very serious consequences and retaliation” if they blew the whistle.
The EESC has repeatedly denied that the review involved staff email accounts, internet use, CCTV or forensic trawls.
A spokesman said a limited review, taken on legal advice after staff concerns, produced recommendations only on physical mail delivery.
In an email of June 8, Boland rejected what he called “erroneous media reports” of a witch-hunt.
He wrote that several staff had come to him “extremely upset and fearful”, and that at least one female colleague was afraid to use the car park at night. The new anonymous letter calls that account an “invented, tearful story”.
Its authors say no letter was sent to any staff member’s private address, deny that the March letters contained “very serious threats”, and ask: “Do the President and the Secretary-General think that whistleblowers and muggers are the same?”
They also allege that computers were searched and that staff were told to identify anyone who had consulted the OLAF website since February 1.
The EESC denies both claims.
The committee’s spokesman has stood by the original account: The March letters “contained serious personal threats and were sent to some private home addresses”.
He said formal whistleblower channels had not been used. The Ombudsman has declined to open an inquiry, in part for that reason.
The EESC is a consultative body of 329 members drawn from employers, trade unions and civil society, appointed by member states for renewable five-year terms.
It does not legislate, and its opinions are not binding, though the EU institutions must consult it in 14 policy areas, among them agriculture, transport, employment and the environment. Its annual budget was €164.9 million in 2024, according to the European Parliament.
The row sits alongside a run of unresolved integrity disputes in the institutions, including Qatargate, Pfizergate, Huaweigate, Timmermansgate, Reyndersgate and the European External Action Service (EEAS) and College of Europe probe, among others.
🚨 Are corruption scandals in the EU being blown out of proportion? 🇪🇺
In this debate, MEP @daniel_freund examines whether corruption within European institutions is a serious systemic problem or less of an issue when compared to political scandals and corruption allegations… pic.twitter.com/dhWP8nMLZ2
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) June 13, 2026
