A Quiet City Shaken: Bruges, Brussels and the Echoes of an EU Scandal
On a damp morning in Bruges, the kind that softens the cobbles and turns the bell towers a deeper gray, students at the College of Europe walked past a ring of police tape with the uneasy curiosity of people who had always believed institutions were incorruptible—or at least, untouchable.
It is a small, elite place: lecture halls filled with the scrubbed-shoe energy of future diplomats, a chapel where debates once spiraled into the night, and portraits of alumni who now populate ministries and parliaments across the continent. Founded in 1949, the College trains hundreds of young professionals every year—many of them on scholarships or programmes funded by the European Union. That ordinary fact is why the recent raids have felt so startling.
What Happened — The Headlines and the Quiet Details
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) announced that Federica Mogherini, the former EU high representative who headed the bloc’s diplomatic service from 2014 to 2019 and became rector of the College of Europe in 2020, and two others have been formally accused of procurement fraud, corruption, conflict of interest, and breaches of professional secrecy.
Among those detained and later released was a senior EU diplomat, named in media reports as Stefano Sannino. EPPO said those questioned included a senior staff member at the College of Europe in Bruges and a senior official from the European Commission. The arrests followed coordinated raids at the European External Action Service (the EU’s diplomatic service) in Brussels, at the College of Europe in Bruges, and at several private residences.
“All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty by the competent Belgian courts of law,” EPPO stressed in its short public statement. The office, created in 2021 and based in Luxembourg, has the remit to investigate crimes affecting the EU budget—generally where the damage is above €10,000—and to bring cases across borders.
What EPPO Is Looking At
The investigation, EPPO said, concerns suspected fraud related to EU-funded training for junior diplomats. At stake are not only possible financial irregularities but the integrity of programmes designed to shape Europe’s future foreign-policy cadre.
“If money meant for training young public servants was misdirected, that would be a twofold betrayal—of taxpayers and of the next generation of diplomats,” said Dr. Marta Kovács, an anti-corruption consultant who has worked with EU institutions. “EPPO’s involvement signals a seriousness that was previously missing from some investigations.”
People on the Ground: Voices from Bruges and Brussels
Inside a café near the College, a student from Poland sipped her coffee and struggled for words. “You study here because you trust this place,” she said. “Now you see police vans and you wonder—what else do we not know?”
Across the canal, a pensioner who has lived in Bruges for forty years watched the security vans and shook his head. “We’re a small city,” he said. “This is not our kind of headline, but maybe it’s healthy. Institutions must be clean.”
In Brussels, the corridors of the European External Action Service felt different: hushed, with colleagues swapping quiet updates rather than conjecture. “There’s a lot of sadness,” said an EU diplomat who asked not to be named. “These are people you’ve worked with and you try to balance empathy with the need for transparency.”
Why This Matters Beyond the Headlines
At first glance, procurement irregularities can feel technical, a matter of forms, tenders and signatures. But the ripple effects are wider. The European Union relies on trust—between citizens and institutions, between member states, and among the networks of professionals who carry European values abroad.
Consider the trainees themselves: a cohort of a few hundred young people who each year come to study in Bruges and the College’s second campus in Natolin, in Warsaw. Many are scholarship recipients or beneficiaries of EU-funded mobility schemes. If funding meant to ensure meritocracy is skewed, the consequence isn’t just financial loss. It’s the erosion of the perceived fairness that sustains the EU’s soft power.
“Young diplomats are ambassadors of the EU’s principles,” said Professor Elaine Murphy, a scholar of European governance. “Investment in their training is investment in the EU’s credibility. Any hint of misuse corrodes that.”
Numbers That Ground the Story
- EPPO: Established in 2021, with the mandate to investigate and prosecute crimes against the EU budget, typically with a threshold of around €10,000 for offences under its purview.
- College of Europe: Founded in 1949, the institution typically educates several hundred postgraduate students across its campuses annually.
- EU budget context: The multiannual financial framework for 2021–2027 amounts to roughly €1.074 trillion in commitments—training programmes are a small portion but symbolically important.
Questions That Aren’t Going Away
How do you rebuild trust after allegations touch the very places that train diplomats? What mechanisms should be in place to ensure procurement is transparent without bogging down legitimate educational initiatives? And perhaps most painfully: how do institutions reconcile the damage done by individuals with the dedication of countless others who do their jobs honestly?
“We must avoid a rush to cynicism,” said Anna Lopes, a former College student now working at a ministry. “Most people here are committed, idealistic even. But we also need stronger safeguards, clearer reporting channels, and independent audits.”
Looking Ahead: The Investigation and Its Wider Implications
For now, EPPO’s investigation will proceed under Belgian jurisdiction. The detained individuals were released and not considered flight risks, but formal accusations are serious and the legal process will play out in public and private hearings. The college and the EEAS will need to cooperate with investigators and to answer hard questions about procurement practices and governance.
There is also a political dimension. The case lands at a time when the EU faces pressing external challenges—from a shifting geopolitical landscape to questions over unity among member states. Scandals that touch diplomacy and training risk feeding narratives that the EU is brittle or self-serving—narratives that external adversaries are all too happy to amplify.
And yet, there is a countervailing truth: institutions can be resilient. Scandals have a way of revealing weaknesses, and where there is scrutiny, there is the opportunity for reform. If the past decade taught Europe anything, it is that transparency and accountability—frustrating and imperfect as they can be—are also tools of renewal.
Final Thoughts: Between Alarm and Hope
Back in Bruges, a senior lecturer at the College paused outside his office, weathered and clear-eyed. “This is painful,” he said. “But it’s also an opportunity to show that the College will not shield anyone accused. We must hold ourselves to the highest standards—because if we don’t, who will?”
As the investigation continues, readers might ask themselves: what do we expect from our institutions, and how much are we willing to insist on transparency in the places that shape our public servants? That is not a question for Brussels only; it is one for every democracy that trains its future leaders.
Watch the coming weeks not just for legal developments but for the institutional responses: audits, policy changes, and perhaps a renewed commitment to the very ideals that drew young diplomats to Bruges in the first place. For the people there, and for the wider European project, the work of repair will require both candor and courage.
