BRUSSELS — Disgraced British politician Peter Mandelson is facing demands to be stripped of his pension as a former European commissioner if investigators found he broke EU rules over his contact with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.  Mandelson served as a European commissioner between 2004 and 2008 and is now at the center of a spiraling scandal in Britain. Newly released files showed how Mandelson, who was a senior British minister at the time, helped provide Epstein, then a financier, with information about a €500 billion bailout to save the euro in 2010.  The European Commission is looking into whether Mandelson broke its rules, which apply even after commissioners have left office, though ethics campaigners have called for a full fraud inquiry by independent investigators. Mandelson should lose the commissioner’s pension to which he is entitled if he’s found to have breached the rules, the campaigners said.  “Given the severity of allegations concerning Peter Mandelson’s deplorable relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the European Commission and European Anti-Fraud Office must pursue an immediate investigation to establish any potential misconduct both during and beyond his tenure as European Commissioner,” Nick Aiossa, director at Transparency International, a leading anti-corruption campaign group, told POLITICO. “Should it do so, Mandelson must be stripped of his Commissioner’s pension.” Daniel Freund, a Green MEP from Germany, condemned the lack of action and investigations against “the most powerful people on earth” over their links to the disgraced financier. “That EU commissioners were somehow involved with this universe is just outrageous,” he told POLITICO. “Taking away the pension would be justified if he broke any EU rules.” Mandelson, 72, was entitled to an inflation-linked pension reportedly worth £31,000 a year when he turned 65 for his four years as a European commissioner. This is on top of other any pensions from his time as an elected politician in the U.K. and in other roles. Mandelson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has previously said he was wrong to have continued his association with Epstein and apologized “unequivocally” to Epstein’s victims. In a statement, the EU’s anti-fraud office, known as OLAF, said: “We cannot provide details regarding cases which OLAF may or may not be treating. This is to protect the confidentiality of any possible investigations and of possible ensuing judicial proceedings, as well as to ensure respect for personal data and procedural rights.” In London, Britain’s Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Mandelson should lose the severance payment he was entitled to when his career as U.K. ambassador to the United States ended over the Epstein scandal. Speaking to Times Radio, Streeting also suggested Mandelson could potentially be stripped of related pension entitlements. The opposition Reform UK party said Mandelson should lose the pension he’s entitled to receive as a former government minister. Noah Keate contributed to this report.

BRUSSELS — The European Commission on Friday announced an investigation into Slovakia over the dismantling of its whistleblower protection office. In its latest rule-of-law spat with Bratislava, the EU executive criticized leftist-populist leader Robert Fico for trying to replace the office with a new institution whose leadership would be politically appointed. “The Commission considers that this law breaches EU rules,” it wrote in an official note on Friday. Brussels’ move comes amid strong pressure from lawmakers and NGOs to act against Fico’s crackdown against independent institutions and suspected fraud involving EU farm funds. Zuzana Dlugošová, the head of the whistleblower protection office, said that she had repeatedly warned Slovak officials that the plans were in contradiction with EU law. “If expert feedback had been taken into account, Slovakia could have avoided EU infringement proceedings. Still, we believe that this process itself can help foster a more professional and substantive debate on how whistleblower protection should be properly set up in Slovakia,” Dlugošová said. Slovakia’s permanent representation in Brussels and interior ministry did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s requests for comment. Brussels has given Bratislava one month to respond to its queries before taking further action — which could potentially include cutting EU payouts to Slovakia after a multi-layered process. Since returning to power in 2023 for a fourth term, Fico’s Smer party has taken steps to dismantle anti-corruption institutions, including abolishing the Special Prosecutor’s Office, which handled high-profile corruption cases, and disbanding NAKA, an elite police unit tasked with fighting organized crime. “The European Commission’s decision … sends a clear message: protecting whistleblowers is not optional — it is a core obligation of every EU Member State,” Czech MEP Tomáš Zdechovský said in written remarks to POLITICO. Before launching the probe, the EU executive had pressed Slovakia to roll back on its anti-democratic crackdown. EU Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin encouraged Fico not to dismantle the whistleblower protection office during a meeting in Bratislava in December, according to two Commission officials with knowledge of proceedings who were not authorized to go on the record. Nevertheless, in December 2025, the Slovak parliament pushed through a bill that cut short the current director’s tenure and weakened protections for whistleblowers. It was set to enter into force in on Jan. 1 but Slovakia’s top court paused the disputed decision to review whether it complies with the constitution. German Green MEP Daniel Freund welcomed the Commission’s move but urged it to go even further. “The Commission needs to do more. Fico’s government has dismantled the special prosecutor for corruption, has dismantled the national crime agency and has changed the penal code to have hundreds of convicted corruption offenders walk free,” Freund told POLITICO. Slovakia is already subject to another infringement procedure, launched by the Commission in November, over a reform that enshrines only two genders in the constitution.

LONDON — Nigel Farage was beaming about his newest recruit Thursday. But the defection from the Tories of frontbench star Robert Jenrick hints at sizable problems for Farage’s insurgent right-wing party too. By securing his highest-profile defection from the Conservatives yet, Reform UK gains one of its rival party’s best communicators — a pugnacious and energetic hardliner, capable of shaping the narrative in Westminster and beyond. But Jenrick — preemptively kicked out of the Tories earlier on Thursday by Leader Kemi Badenoch after she got wind of his looming defection — presents his own problems for Farage’s insurgent party as it tries to redraw Britain’s political map. Jenrick’s vaulting ambition, eagerness to rebel and to challenge the leadership are now Farage’s problem. And Reform’s critics have been handed more ammunition to claim the party is little more than the Conservatives 2.0, as they embrace a serial minister Tory administrations that crashed to a hefty defeat in the 2024 general election. Farage underlined that problem himself as he unveiled his new acquisition at a chaotic press conference Thursday. The event was hastily repurposed because Badenoch got the jump on their secret plot hours earlier. “Our biggest weakness is we haven’t had people who’ve actually been there in cabinet, in No.10, who understand how these things work,” Farage said —before pausing and backtracking. “Maybe he understands why the system doesn’t work,” Farage clarified. Reform’s critics can now add Jenrick to the long list of high-profile Conservatives to join Farage’s ranks after serving in a government that voters turfed out of power just 18 months ago. Among them are former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, who joined Reform earlier this week, and former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries. Jenrick was there in government when Liz Truss detonated the economy, and when Boris Johnson conceived a wave of post-Brexit migration. Jenrick was immigration minister as the number of small boats crossing the Channel carrying asylum seekers surged. He opened many of the asylum hotels that now house them, and which are so hated by Reform voters. Farage himself appears live to the risks posed by adopting former Conservative ministers. At that same late afternoon press conference he set a deadline of the May 7 local elections for any further defections of MPs. Robert Jenrick presents his own problems for Farage’s insurgent party as it tries to redraw Britain’s political map. | Andy Rain/EPA Jenrick counters criticisms by pointing out he resigned from Rishi Sunak’s doomed government in 2023 because of his disagreements over migration policy. Former colleagues still suspect his burning ambition to lead the Conservatives was a factor too. He lost to Badenoch in the leadership election that followed his former party’s crushing 2024 defeat. Despite joining her top team as shadow justice secretary, he never really stopped waging the next leadership battle behind the scenes.  Jenrick would often float different policy positions to Badenoch. He angered Conservative colleagues with what was perceived by some critics to be “racist” rhetoric — an allegation he always strongly denied. If a wave of Tory defections do not rapidly follow Jenrick’s then Badenoch also can argue she’s come out stronger from Thursday’s dramatic departure. She got the march on Farage by preemptively ejecting her great rival from the party, and spoiling the Reform leader’s surprise. She also looked decisive in kicking out her would-be leadership rival. Badenoch’s own personality and policy clash with Jenrick could signal trouble ahead as the ex-Tory competes with Reform’s many egos. Farage has frequently traded barbs with Jenrick, who he has branded a “fraud” and a “hypocrite” —  but the potential rift Jenrick’s former Conservative colleagues are most closely watching is with Reform Head of Policy Zia Yusuf. Jenrick branded him “Zia Useless” during one online slanging match — although he name-checked Yusuf Thursday in a roll-call paying tribute to his new colleagues. “All I would say to Nigel is Rob’s not my problem any more — he’s your problem,” Badenoch quipped in an interview with GB News. While Badenoch has publicly ruled out any pacts with Reform to reunite the right ahead of the next general election, Jenrick was always more ambiguous about a potential deal. With Jenrick out of the Tory tent, an alliance looks less likely. In welcoming Jenrick, Farage has gone for the Conservative jugular, and committed to absorbing and overthrowing the establishment party in his quest to become the dominant force in right-wing politics.  For Keir Starmer’s struggling Labour Party it offers a glimmer of hope. If splits remain on the right, then Starmer — or whoever is prime minister at the the time of the next U.K. general election — is in a far better position to rally the sizable anti-Farage sentiment that counterbalances his popularity.

LONDON — Nigel Farage has a new recruit to his Reform UK cause. They haven’t always been the best of pals. Robert Jenrick, a former Tory leadership contender, defected to Farage’s right-wing cause Thursday after being fired from the Conservatives by party Leader Kemi Badenoch. Farage is “obviously the right person to lead the movement for change Britain needs,” Jenrick said, adding the Reform leader was “all too often a lone voice of common sense.” Farage and Jenrick haven’t always been on the friendliest of terms. After the duo’s Thursday night love-in at a London press conference, POLITICO sweeps through the seven occasions the pair were at each other’s throats. SEPTEMBER 2024: FARAGE SAYS JENRICK BELIEVES IN NOTHING Farage showed little love for Jenrick when he offered himself as a future Conservative Party leader in the 2024 contest to replace Rishi Sunak. Jenrick was “formerly a man that believed in nothing” who pitched himself as the “great hardliner,” Farage said in a post on X as the contest reached its climax. “This is almost certainly done for political gain and not out of conviction. He will divide the party,” Farage added. Making sure he had really hammered home his distaste, Farage concluded: “I doubt that Jenrick will last long if he wins.” OCTOBER 2024: FARAGE BRANDS JENRICK A HYPOCRITE Farage never misses an opportunity to bash a former Conservative minister over their record in government. Jenrick wasn’t spared in his past life. Pictured Jan. 15, 2026 … but these two have history. | Jordan Pettitt/PA Images via Getty Images The Reform leader couldn’t resist a Jenrick jab when POLITICO reported that long-term contracts for housing irregular migrants had actually been approved by Jenrick while he was immigration minister. Farage decried Jenrick as a “hypocrite” for attack Labour on similar grounds, adding: “Don’t believe a word that he says on anything.” Their first pint as Reform pals could be awkward. APRIL 2025: FARAGE VERSUS ROBERT GENERIC Asked by Sky whether Jenrick would be welcome in Reform, Farage’s answer was equivocal: “Maybe … if we thought he was genuine, yes.” But it came with this caveat. “Don’t forget…this is Robert Generic. This is Robert the Remainer. This is the Robert the ‘I don’t stand particularly for anything at all’ who suddenly appears to be … on this Damascene conversion.” MAY 2025: JENRICK SAYS FARAGE HAS HAD TOO MANY PINTS It cuts both ways. Jenrick has been happy to throw the odd insult Farage’s way too. Lambasting Reform’s social security policy, the ex-Tory got personal: “Has he cooked this up after one too many pints at his local?,” Jenrick asked. “Has a joint found its way into his usual pack of Marlboro Golds?” AUGUST 2025: JENRICK CLAIMS HE’S GOT FARAGE RATTLED Farage and Jenrick traded blows last summer amid heated protests over a hotel housing irregular migrants in Essex. Farage labeled Jenrick “no friend” of the English town of Epping after the then shadow justice secretary visited a rally outside the Bell Hotel. “When Robert Jenrick was immigration minister he grew the number of illegal migrants living in free hotels to 56,000,” tweeted Farage with a one minute video to boot. Eager to grab the last word, Jenrick responded: “You’re rattled.” By Jenrick’s account Thursday, he started talking to Farage about a possible defection just weeks later. AUGUST 2025: FARAGE CALLS JENRICK A FRAUD Farage found more of Jenrick’s ministerial record to bash last summer. “Jenrick is a fraud,” he tweeted to his millions of followers. “I’ve always thought so, this quote proves it.” The quote in question? Jenrick speaking in 2022 about procuring more hotels for migrants who cross the English Channel. SEPTEMBER 2025: DON’T LET FARAGE RUN A SCHOOL, SAYS JENRICK Jenrick told the Sun Farage was “a good bloke to go to the pub with and he speaks to a lot of people in the country.” “But I don’t think Nigel’s the kind of bloke you want to have running your kids’ schools, or running your local hospital,” adding he wasn’t sure “if Nigel actually thinks he is the right person to do that himself.” And earlier that year, Jenrick said it was his ambition to “put Reform out of business,” and send Farage back “to retirement.” That hasn’t quite happened. If you can’t beat them, join them, eh?

A Milan criminal court on Wednesday acquitted Italian fashion influencer and businesswoman Chiara Ferragni of aggravated fraud in the so-called Pandorogate scandal. The case, one of Italy’s most high-profile celebrity trials, centered on allegations of misleading advertising linked to the promotion of the sweet pandoro Christmas bread — luxury sugar-dusted brioches — in 2022 and Easter eggs sold in 2021 and 2022. Prosecutors, who had requested a 20-month prison sentence, argued that consumers had been led to believe their purchases would support charitable causes, when donations had in fact already been made and were not tied to sales. Ferragni denied any wrongdoing throughout the proceedings. Judge Ilio Mannucci rejected the aggravating circumstance cited by prosecutors, reclassifying the charge as simple fraud, according to ANSA. Under Italian law, that requires a formal complaint to proceed. But because the consumer group Codacons had withdrawn its complaint last year after reaching a compensation agreement with Ferragni, the judge dismissed the case. The ruling also applies to her co-defendants, including her former close aide Fabio Damato, and Cerealitalia Chairman Francesco Cannillo. “We are all very moved,” Ferragni said outside the Milan courtroom after the verdict. “I thank everyone, my lawyers and my followers.” The scandal began in late 2023, when Ferragni partnered with confectioner Balocco to market a limited-edition pandoro to support cancer research. But Balocco had already donated a fixed €50,000 months earlier, while Ferragni’s companies earned more than €1 million from the campaign. The competition authorities fined Ferragni and Balocco more than €1.4 million, and last year, Milan prosecutors charged Ferragni with aggravated fraud for allegedly generating false expectations among buyers. Ferragni and her then-husband and rapper Fedez used to be Italy’s most politically influential Instagram couple, championing progressive causes, campaigning for LGBTQ+ rights and positioning themselves against the country’s traditionalist Catholic mainstream, often drawing sharp criticism from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the Italian right. Since the scandal erupted in December 2023, however, that cultural and political empire has unraveled: the couple divorced, Ferragni retreated from public life, and Fedez reemerged in increasingly right-leaning political circles. Wednesday’s acquittal closes a legal chapter that had sparked intense political and media scrutiny, triggered regulatory fines and fueled a broader debate in Italy over influencer marketing, charity and consumer protection.

The downfall of Italy’s most politically influential Instagram couple — in a fraud scandal over sales of sweet pandoro Christmas bread — is gripping the nation, and there have been walk-on roles for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her deputy, Matteo Salvini. Chiara Ferragni, once the face of Italian fashion on social media and a darling of the left, faces a potential jail term this week, over the so-called “Pandorogate” scandal. She is accused of misleading consumers in 2023 by promoting sales of luxury sugar-dusted brioches, whose inflated prices were supposed to support sick children. Her trial began in a Milan courtroom in late November, with a verdict expected on Jan. 14. Prosecutors have requested a 20-month prison sentence. Ferragni strongly denies any wrongdoing. “Everything we have done, we have done in good faith, none of us has profited,” she told the courtroom on Nov. 25. Her ex-husband, rapper-turned-activist Federico Lucia, known as Fedez, was not charged in the scandal, but their marriage has collapsed under public scrutiny and he has made an eye-catching lurch to engaging the political right. Before the trial even began, the case was political. The glamorous couple had been famous for taking on progressive causes, pitting themselves against the more traditionalist Catholic mainstream. They tackled discrimination, campaigned for LGBTQ+ rights and raised funds for intensive-care units during the Covid pandemic. As soon as the scandal broke, conservative Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was quick to single out Ferragni as the wrong kind of role model. “The real role models … are not influencers who make loads of money promoting expensive panettoni that are supposedly for charity,” Meloni said from the stage at the 2023 Atreju gathering of Italy’s far right. Chiara Ferragni and her husband Federico Leonardo Lucia, during the 76th Venice Film Festival on September 4, 2019 at Venice Lido. | Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images Months later, in 2024, Meloni introduced a bill — now dubbed the Ferragni law — that directly targets influencers suspected of misleading their fan base with glitzy marketing promotions. The proposed legislation is not the legal basis for Ferragni’s prosecution, which falls under existing consumer protection and fraud laws, but it was widely interpreted as a political response to the scandal bearing her name. By contrast, Meloni’s deputy, Salvini from the League party, came to Ferragni’s defense, saying he was “shocked” by the “malice and rancor” directed at the influencer and her family. Indeed, a bond now seems to be building between Fedez and Salvini in the aftermath of Pandoro-gate. Once a progressive provocateur and outspoken critic of Italy’s far right, Fedez has more recently appeared alongside right-wing figures, invited League hardliner Roberto Vannacci onto his podcast and attended the youth congress of the conservative Forza Italia party. In his memoir, he even praises Salvini for being among the few public figures who checked in regularly during the difficult period following his divorce. “He was the only one who showed me true empathy. And this despite the fact that we had very different ideas and we said all sorts about each other in the past,” he wrote. POLITICO reached out to both Ferragni’s company Chiara Ferragni Brand and her lawyers as well as to Fedez’s PR agency for comments, but received no response. MILLENNIAL EMPIRE Before the courtroom drama, Ferragni, 38, and Fedez, 36, spent a decade assembling something unique in Italian public life: A millennial empire that blended fashion, entrepreneurship, activism and entertainment into a single, highly lucrative influence machine. Ferragni, a former law student, launched the blog The Blonde Salad with her then-partner in 2009. By 2016, it had evolved into a lifestyle magazine and e-commerce platform, selling Ferragni-designed stilettos, luggage and sweatshirts with her well-known sardonic eye logo embroidered across the chest. Luxury houses took notice. She moved from the blogsphere to the front rows of fashion weeks, securing lucrative partnerships and becoming a Harvard Business School case study. Fedez’s path was different. He was a master “at intercepting the cultural changes in Italy,” said Francesco Oggiano, a journalist and expert in digital and political communication. Already established as a rapper in the early 2010s, Fedez reinvented himself as a political firebrand. He publicly challenged Meloni, wrote the official song for the populist Five Star Movement in 2014 and used televised appearances at the Sanremo song contest to criticize right-wing politicians. He was loud, combative, and comfortable mixing his celebrity with activism. Ferragni moved from the blogsphere to the front rows of fashion weeks, securing lucrative partnerships and becoming a Harvard Business School case study. | Donato Fasano/Getty Images When Ferragni and Fedez met in 2016, their relationship quickly became a shared brand. Their 2018 wedding was a sponsorship-saturated media event. Their home life played out as a meticulously crafted and very glitzy reality show followed by millions. And it worked. “Italy has always been an orphan of royal couples,” Oggiano explained. The country “deluded itself that [Ferragni and Fedez] were the perfect couple” and helped build their myth by following their every move. They threw their weight behind the Zan bill, a proposed law to protect people from violence and discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and disabilities that never saw the light of day. They also used their platform to amplify the Malika case, in support of a young woman kicked out of her home by her family for loving another woman; and raised millions for intensive-care units during the Covid pandemic. The duo became a kind of soft-power project, offering an outlet for a millennial Italy opposed to traditional nationalist and Catholic frameworks. They weren’t politicians, but their influence rivaled that of politicians grappling with a changing media landscape. SUGARY SCANDAL The couple’s progressive politics made “Pandorogate” a spectacular fall from grace. In late 2023, Ferragni partnered with confectioner Balocco to market a pink-boxed, limited-edition pandoro to support Turin’s Regina Margherita children’s hospital. The message was simple: Buy the pandoro to support cancer research. But the arrangement was not tied to sales. As journalist Selvaggia Lucarelli first revealed, Balocco had already donated a fixed €50,000 months earlier, while Ferragni received a commercial fee for the campaign. Even the hospital initially misunderstood how the promotion worked. Italy’s Competition Authority (AGCM) later confirmed those findings, concluding that packaging, press releases and social-media posts created the misleading impression that consumers were directly supporting the charity. In reality, no share of sales was donated, while Ferragni’s companies earned more than €1 million from the campaign. Chiara Ferragni, charged for aggravated fraud in a case linked to a Pandoro charity initiative, leaves the courthouse of Milan after a preliminary hearing, in Milan on November 4, 2025. | Piero Cruciatii/AFP via Getty Images The competition authorities fined Ferragni and Balocco more than €1 million for misleading commercial practices, and saying companies linked to Ferragni profited from the scheme. Consumer groups urged prosecutors to investigate potential fraud and to consider freezing her companies’ accounts. By 2025, the controversy had shifted to criminal proceedings. Milan prosecutors incorporated the AGCM’s conclusions into their case, charging Ferragni with aggravated fraud for allegedly generating false expectations among buyers. To her political enemies, Pandorogate was a case of philanthropy being treated as a marketing accessory. The attorney general stated in the decree that decided the trial would be held in Milan that Ferragni “used” charity “to strengthen her image.” BUBBLE REPUTATION The scandal didn’t just damage the couple’s commercial brand. It also tarnished the progressive picture they created of themselves. “Fedez was always better at controlling the narrative,” said Oggiano, which may help explain why he has managed to remain relevant in Italy’s media landscape. After the divorce, Fedez took control of the public discourse yet again by writing an autobiography. In it, he describes how, already struggling after cancer surgery, he cycled through hospitalizations, panic attacks, heavy medication and periods of erratic behavior, finding support in unlikely places, not least Salvini. A public repositioning followed. Fedez launched a new podcast, where he often hosts some of Italy’s most outspoken right-wing figures, from politicians to other artists and influencers. He calls it “dialogue,” while his critics call it a political shift. His audience has changed too: More male, more skeptical and increasingly drawn to a Joe Rogan-style environment that prizes unfiltered chatter over ideological clarity. Ferragni chose silence instead. Legal troubles, reputational collapse and the withdrawal of brand partners are now pushing her largely out of public view. Their demise removes one of the few high-visibility counterweights to a nationalist government that is now mastering digital communication. What remains of their legacy? At a national level, when it comes to marketing campaigns, “brands are definitely more careful,” Oggiano said. Ferragni now faces a legal battle and a steep climb back to public trust. Fedez has traded activism for opinion-driven entertainment on his podcast. Their shared brand of entrepreneurial optimism and progressive advocacy has evaporated. She paid a heavier price than Fedez, but both careers were always built on a trade-off. As Oggiano puts it: “You have to choose between attention and reputation. Some people choose reputation above all else, and the moment there’s even the slightest scandal, everything collapses.”

The Justice Department is appealing the ruling that resulted in the dismissal of criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. The appeal, lodged in both cases, challenges a judge’s finding that the lead prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, was illegally appointed to her position. Attorney General Pam Bondi, at President Donald Trump’s urging, appointed Halligan in September as interim U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. Halligan, a former personal attorney to Trump with no prosecutorial experience, secured criminal charges against Comey and James within days. But U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie concluded that Halligan should never have been in the role in the first place because her predecessor, Erik Siebert, had already filled the interim position for a legal maximum of 120 days. And because Halligan was the only prosecutor who signed the Comey and James indictments, Currie concluded that the indictments were defective and had to be tossed. Comey was indicted in late September on charges that he lied to Congress in 2020, during a hearing related to the FBI’s investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia. James was charged with mortgage fraud related to a property she purchased in Virginia. Both pleaded not guilty and noted that they were indicted by Halligan just days after Trump demanded that his Justice Department quickly bring charges against his political adversaries. The decision to appeal followed two failed efforts by Justice Department prosecutors to re-indict James — extraordinary rebukes by grand juries amid widespread indications that the charges against Comey and James were driven by Trump’s personal animus against them for his own legal travails. Comey’s case is more complicated to revive because he was initially indicted just days before a five-year statute of limitations that expiredHis team contends that the failure to bring a valid indictment by the deadline suggests he can no longer be charged.

The College of Europe is hiring a new rector because the former holder of that role, Federica Mogherini, resigned after being mired in scandal earlier this month. In a vacancy notice posted Monday, the college said it’s accepting applications until March 2, with the new rector to start from June 2026 or soon after. The rector “holds the overall academic and administrative responsibility for the College as a whole,” the notice said.   Candidates must be European nationals, show “important academic qualities” and have management experience, as well as speaking English and French. “In executing their responsibilities, the Rector will live up to the high ethical standards and values of the College of Europe,” the notice said. The elite training ground for future EU civil servants may be hoping for a quieter selection process than last time around, when Mogherini, the EU’s former top diplomat, won the job even though she applied after the deadline and despite accusations of cronyism and not being qualified for the role. Mogherini resigned in early December after being questioned in a fraud probe over a public tender in 2021-22 for a diplomatic academy program. Mogherini’s former employer, the European External Action Service (EEAS), awarded the tender to the College of Europe, and Mogherini became the director of the diplomatic academy in addition to her job as rector of the college. The scandal also took down the former top civil servant at the EEAS, Stefano Sannino. The college has named Ewa Ośniecka-Tamecka as acting rector until a replacement for Mogherini is found. The rector’s job is for a term of five years and can be renewed once. The person will report to former European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, who is the head of the college’s administrative council.

Prime Minister Robert Fico’s leftist-populist ruling coalition voted on Tuesday to abolish an office that protects people who report corruption in a further crackdown on the rule of law in Slovakia. The draft bill — passed via a fast-track procedure on International Anti-Corruption Day — shuts down the country’s Whistleblower Protection Office, which was created in 2021 under the EU’s Whistleblower Protection Directive. The shuttered office will be replaced by a new institution whose leadership will be appointed by the government. Critics and opposition parties say the change will strip various protections from whistleblowers. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office warned last month that restricting protection for whistleblowers “seriously limits detection, reporting, and investigation, particularly of corruption.” The Slovak decision, which drew 78 votes in the 150-seat parliament, is expected to spark tensions with the European Commission. The EU executive noted last month that “several elements of this law raise serious concerns in relation to EU law.” “We regret that MPs did not heed the warnings of dozens of experts and international organizations, including the European Commission and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which drew attention to the negative impacts of the new law,” the Slovak whistleblower office said in a post on Facebook. “The level of protection, as well as public trust in the whistleblower protection system that we have painstakingly built at the office over the past years, will be significantly weakened by this law,” it added. NGOs and the political opposition said they view the move as political payback from Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok, whose ministry had been fined by the whistleblower office for suspending elite police officers under whistleblower protection without first notifying the office. The suspended officers had been investigating corruption among senior Slovak officials. Slovakia’s Interior Ministry told POLITICO in a statement that “the opposition’s claims of ‘revenge’ are false and have no factual basis.” “The change [with the office] is not personal, but institutional. It is a systemic solution to long-standing issues that have arisen in the practical application of the current law, as confirmed by several court rulings,” the ministry said, adding that the changes are consistent with the EU’s whistleblower protection directive. To become law, the legislation still needs approval from President Peter Pellegrini, who has signaled he might veto it. In that case it could be enacted by the parliament in a repeat vote. Since returning to power in 2023 for a fourth term, Fico’s Smer party has taken steps to dismantle anti-corruption institutions, including abolishing the Office of the Special Prosecutor, which had handled high-profile corruption cases, and disbanding NAKA, the elite police unit tasked with fighting organized crime. The European Commission did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.

LONDON — Scandal-hit Japanese tech firm Fujitsu has lost its grip on a lucrative contract to keep running Great Britain’s post-Brexit border with Northern Ireland, following mounting public pressure, two people with knowledge of the bidding process have told POLITICO. The firm at the center of the Post Office scandal — which saw faulty data from Fujitsu’s Horizon software lead to wrongful theft and fraud convictions of hundreds of innocent Post Office workers — had spearheaded a consortium bid for the £370 million contract to continue running the Trader Support Service (TSS), as reported earlier this year. The contract was awarded to another consortium late last month, according to the two people cited above. The 10-day cooling-off period after the contract was awarded ends on Tuesday. The Fujitsu-led consortium, which includes Liz Truss ally Shanker Singham’s firm Competere, has raked in more than £500 million since 2020 developing and operating the platform, which helps firms navigate the complicated post-Brexit customs arrangements between Great Britain and Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework. While a new supplier will be taking control of TSS, Fujitsu retains the intellectual property rights to a core part of the existing platform, four people with knowledge of the process — including those cited above — confirmed. This means the new system will have to be built from scratch.  All of those cited in this story were granted anonymity to speak freely. There have been calls for Fujitsu to be stripped of its public contracts while sub postmasters affected by the scandal await full compensation. In August, more than 32 MPs and 44 peers wrote to U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, urging him to block the firm from bidding for control of the TSS platform. In October, the government accepted all but one of the recommendations from Wyn Williams’ inquiry into the scandal, published in July, which concluded that at least 13 people may have taken their own lives after being accused of wrongdoing.  There has also been public scrutiny over the running of TSS. Cabinet Office Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds told lawmakers earlier this year he was investigating industry concerns about the service. “We are concerned to hear reports that the Trader Support Service is not providing a good quality of service,” cross-party peers on the Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee wrote in an October report. Meanwhile, a report by the Federation of Small Businesses found current support relating to the Windsor Framework — including the TSS — was “falling short of expectations,” with 78 percent of Northern Irish businesses surveyed rating it as either “very poor” or “poor.” A spokesperson for HMRC, which awarded the contract, said: “We follow government procurement rules when awarding contracts, ensuring value for money for taxpayers. All bids underwent a robust evaluation and assurance process, and we will confirm the award in due course.” Fujitsu and Competere did not respond to requests for comment.