EU conservatives want to grill Commissioner Kos on secret police claims

BRUSSELS — Europe’s biggest political group on Wednesday called for a special hearing in the European Parliament to grill Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos on allegations she collaborated decades ago with secret police in the former Yugoslavia. 

Kos denied claims she had been in league with Yugoslavia’s intelligence agency in the 1980s at her 2024 confirmation hearing in the Parliament. But the allegations resurfaced last week with the support of an MEP in the European People’s Party (EPP), the political family of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Kos’s boss. 

Kos’ cabinet did not respond to a request for comment. But a Commission official told POLITICO last week that Kos had undergone “the extensive and thorough vetting process” required to become a commissioner. An official close to the commissioner’s office, granted anonymity to speak about the sensitive allegations, argued they constituted a political attack to “score points in the Slovenian elections.”

Slovenia goes to the polls on Sunday, pitting the governing left-liberal coalition, which Kos formerly belonged to, against the right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party, which is part of the EPP. The latter is leading in the polls.

Manfred Weber, president of the EPP, is now calling for Kos to be questioned in the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee.

“The questions that have been raised regarding the European Commissioner must be answered in the European Parliament,” Weber said in a written statement provided to Slovenian press and to POLITICO.

“That is why we have requested the convening of an urgent extraordinary meeting of the [foreign affairs] committee. This is not a pre-judgment on content, but … Marta Kos must appear in the European Parliament and answer the questions in order to preserve the integrity and credibility of the European Commission,” he added.

The allegations resurfaced after Slovenian MEP Romana Tomc, an EPP group vice president, wrote to the Commission last week claiming to have fresh evidence that Kos, who is also Slovenian, collaborated with Yugoslav intelligence. At the Parliament in Strasbourg, Tomc presented a book by Slovenian author Igor Omerza containing documents that the two said proved Kos worked with the Yugoslav spy agency.

Any hearing would take place in the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), which is chaired by David McAllister, an EPP MEP. The chairman and group coordinators decide whether to schedule committee hearings. Kos had been due to speak at an AFET hearing on Monday but canceled her appearance.

Gabriel Gavin contributed to this report.