Federica Mogherini, the former High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the European External Action Service and now the rector of the College of Europe, which trains diplomats in Brussels, has been arrested. They also arrested a senior diplomat currently working in the von der Leyen Commission, Stefano Sannino, who left his post as Secretary-General of the European External Action Service at the beginning of this year and has since been given a prominent position in the Commission. They are suspected of public procurement fraud, corruption, conflict of interest and breach of official secrecy.
Since the early 2020s, the European Union has been steadily shaken by increasingly serious corruption scandals, such as Qatargate, which mainly affected the European Parliament. The biggest scandal erupted when it was revealed that Ursula von der Leyen had “complicated” the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines with the CEO of Pfizer in text messages during the pandemic, and the messages were later simply deleted. It is important to highlight that in recent years, the European External Action Service has become the most important headquarters of pro-war and pro-Ukrainian thinking in Brussels, which has determined the EU’s policy towards Ukraine and its pro-war strategy. The current raid shows that pro-war decision-making circles operate with serious corruption exposure not only in Kyiv, but also in Brussels. The case is another blow to the war mafia, which is present not only in Ukraine, but also in Brussels.
Federica Mogherini’s current workplace, the College of Europe, is not only an educational institution, but also an ideological and network supply center for the pro-Ukrainian foreign policy elite in Brussels. The scandals in Brussels and Ukraine show two sides of the same intertwined political-economic network: where there is a lot of money and war pressure, corruption also appears, just as it does from Brussels to Kiev. In light of the above, it would not be surprising if sooner or later Ursula von der Leyen would suffer a similar fate, as this excessively pro-war position is not justified by common sense at all, so it would not be surprising if there was some “other aspect” behind its representation.
Translated and edited by Hans Seckler
