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Mogherini's scandal, another blow to the EU after "Qatargate"/ Russia does not miss the opportunity to sting and attack the union

2025-12-03 08:02:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Mogherini's scandal, another blow to the EU after "Qatargate"/

The moral and symbolic, or rather political, damage caused to the European Union by the scandal involving former Commission Vice-President Federica Mogherini is already huge. This is the second biggest scandal after “Qatar Gate” in 2022.

Russia, meanwhile, has not missed an opportunity to sting and attack the union. Moscow sees this scandal as a victory in terms of impressions and in the context of the "Cold War" that has been developing between Russia and the EU recently.

"The European Union turns a blind eye to its own corruption, but does not stop preaching to others. Millions of euros have been channeled to Ukraine through corruption channels, something that has been happening for years and in the public eye ," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

Yesterday, competent Belgian authorities, as part of the fight against corruption, carried out a raid on the EU diplomatic service where the former Italian High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, was arrested.

She is being held on suspicion of committing a chain of illegal acts, which include fraud and are related to the management of European Union funds for the education and training of young diplomats.

Federica Mogherini, 52, has been the director of the College of Europe since 2020, holding the title of rector. In addition to the College, the investigation also focuses on possible fraud in the European External Action Service (EEAS), of which Mogherini served as director from 2014 to 2019.

Along with Mogherini, another Italian European Commission official, Stefano Sannino, was arrested. He served as Secretary-General of the European External Action Service. Sannino is also involved in the Diplomatic Academy, which was the reason for the arrests of senior EU officials.

The third person detained in Belgium is another Italian, Cesare Cegretti, also director of the College of Europe. No statement has yet been made by the European Commission, which is logical, since the last thing Ursula von der Leyen needed in the current, extremely difficult circumstances, due to tension with Russia, rumors of imminent war, was a new scandal.

The criminal offenses for which Federica Mogherini is being investigated are suspected to have been committed in the period 2021-2022 and, according to what has been made public by the European Public Prosecutor's Office, the charges that will be brought against the three detainees include fraud in the allocation of public funds, corruption, breach of duty and professional secrecy.

It is also noted that the Prosecutor has serious doubts that there has been a breach of Article 169 of the EU Financial Regulation, which concerns the protection of healthy competition. Confidential information was disclosed to one of the student candidates at the Diplomatic Academy and the College of Europe.

Federica Mogherini, former Italian Foreign Minister in 2014, married and mother of two children, as well as her two suspected associates, have not been formally charged. Since the Belgian authorities have 48 hours to plan their next steps, this period of detention may be extended if the competent prosecutor deems it necessary.

In the coming hours, more and more specific details will probably be revealed about the amount of funds that Federica Mogherini and her two associates are suspected of having mismanaged. /CNA