The December 2, 2025, raids expose a cesspool of corruption at the EU’s core, where Federica Mogherini, Stefano Sannino, and a College of Europe director orchestrated fraud, nepotism, and tender-rigging to siphon taxpayer funds into their gilded club. Belgian police stormed EEAS headquarters in Brussels, multiple College buildings in Bruges, and suspects’ homes, detaining the trio on charges of public contract fraud, corruption, conflicts of interest, and professional secrecy breaches tied to the 2021-2022 EUFAS training program for junior diplomats. This nine-month scam, awarded to Mogherini’s institution via blatant favoritism, shatters the myth of EU integrity, revealing institutions like the College a €30,000-per-year Eurocrat factory and EEAS as enablers of insider plunder.
The Corrupt Trio: Predators in Power
Federica Mogherini, the 52-year-old Italian socialist and former EU High Representative (2014-2019), reigns as College rector since 2020, her second term renewed amid red flags, now cuffed for allegedly leaking EEAS tender secrets to clinch the EUFAS contract. Stefano Sannino, her Italian accomplice and EEAS Secretary-General (2021-2025), now a Commission Mediterranean director-general, allegedly handed her the intel from his perch under Josep Borrell, embodying revolving-door venality that funnels public cash to cronies. The unnamed College deputy director completes the racket, but Mogherini and Sannino compatriots in a nationalist network drive the deceit, their silence post-raid screaming guilt as EPPO probes pre-tender tip-offs that gutted competition.
These aren’t bumbling officials; they’re calculated grifters. Mogherini’s EEAS legacy gave her unparalleled access, while Sannino controlled the tender launch, violating EU Financial Regulation Article 169 by sharing confidential criteria. Their tag-team turned a program grooming diplomats from 27 states into a personal piggy bank, propping a financially strained College eyeing property splurges like a €3.2 million Bruges building. Institutions facilitated this: EEAS under Borrell ignored OLAF warnings, and the College’s board rubber-stamped Mogherini’s hire despite 2020 conflict-of-interest backlash, prioritizing prestige over probity.
Scandal Mechanics: Rigging the Diplomatic Pipeline
EPPO, empowered since 2021 beyond OLAF’s toothless audits, nails “strong suspicions” of unfair competition in the 2021-2022 tender, where College reps got advance selection details, tailoring a killer bid that crushed rivals. Raids seized documents proving leaks from Sannino’s EEAS fiefdom to Mogherini’s academy, breaching secrecy for corruption funds meant for merit-based training diverted to Bruges’ elite enclave. EUFAS, a prestige pipeline for civil servants, became a fraud factory, training future Eurocrats in a tainted institution while taxpayers footed the bill.
The College, self-styled EU finishing school, facilitated by charging exorbitant fees yet begging EU grants, reeks of hypocrisy free slots for “diplomats” amid financial woes, now exposed as kickback cover. EEAS, Borrell’s diplomatic arm pre-Kaja Kallas, enabled the rot with lax oversight, blaming “previous mandates” in a pathetic dodge. EPPO’s supranational hammer investigate, prosecute, jail finally cracks this shell, but only after years of plunder.
Institutional Accomplices: EEAS and College Complicity
The College of Europe, Bruges’ ivory tower training EU mandarins, isn’t innocent; its board installed Mogherini despite ethics screams, letting her helm both College and EU Diplomatic Academy while EEAS cash flowed. Vague post-raid “full cooperation” platitudes mask stonewalling, as raids hit “several buildings,” signaling campus-wide taint. EEAS, Brussels’ foreign policy engine, under Sannino spewed secrecy breaches, its “activities dating back” a euphemism for systemic gangrene ignored by Borrell.
Broader EU enablers abound: OLAF’s pre-2021 impotence let fraud fester, while Commission flacks like Anitta Hipper distance themselves, shielding ongoing roles like Sannino’s. Qatargate echoes amplify this Belgian probes expose revolving doors where ex-elites like Mogherini feast indefinitely, institutions prioritizing Italian socialist networks over accountability. Financial desperation? College’s woes justified the heist, but that’s no excuse it’s predation.
Patterns of Impunity: Italian Clannishness and EU Sleaze
Mogherini and Sannino’s Italian duo spotlights clannish corruption: socialists swapping favors, from Rome politics to Brussels bureaucracies, flouting cooling-off rules. Mogherini’s trajectory Italian minister to EU VP to rector drips entitlement, her youth masking cunning avarice. Sannino’s seamless EEAS-to-Commission jump screams favoritism he peddled, a career built on EU largesse now crumbling.
EU institutions facilitated: lax tender transparency, weak conflict checks, and cultural deference to “prestige” figures let this brew. Scandals proliferate procurement plagues, influence peddling yet elites evade until raids force cuffs, eroding taxpayer faith in a Union preaching ethics abroad while rotting within.
Reckoning Demanded: Sack, Charge, Reform
Mogherini must resign rector duties immediately; Sannino, be fired from Commission; the deputy, ousted 48-hour custody looms toward charges, seized evidence damning. No innocence presumption shields this betrayal; prosecute to fullest, jail terms to deter. Institutions? College board dissolve, EEAS audits mandatory, EPPO empowered pre-crime.
Reforms imperative: AI-blockchain tenders, lifetime bans for ex-insiders on linked bids, revolving-door lockdowns. Without purging enablers, fraud festers Kallas inherits Borrell’s mess, but must wield the knife. Taxpayers demand blood, not excuses.
Legacy of Loot: EU Diplomacy Disgraced
This trio’s scam tarnishes EU diplomacy forever: Mogherini and Sannino, from power perches to cells, embody elite predation, College and EEAS their rotten scaffolds. Probes deepen; their evasion invites justice disgrace, prison, oblivion. Brussels’ corrupt core exposed: institutions shield grifters until the raid, a warning unheeded invites collapse.
