EU officials upset MEPs on Kosovo corruption scandal

BRUSSELS - Two senior EU officials have annoyed MEPs by refusing to give details on the corruption scandal in Eulex, the EU’s rule of law mission in Kosovo.

Fernando Gentilini, an Italian who is in charge of the Western Balkans department in the EU foreign service, and Kenneth Deanne, a British man who runs its civilian crisis missions, spoke with euro-deputies on the foreign affairs committee in Brussels on Monday (3 November).

They first insisted on holding the meeting “in camera” to exclude press.

They then said they cannot comment on details of the corruption allegations because there is an “ongoing investigation” inside Eulex.

One parliament source, who attended the Q&A, told EUobserver that Gentilini almost did not speak at all and that committee members left the session “very disappointed”.

A second contact said: “They [Gentilini and Deanne] told the MEPs nothing more than they already knew from media reports … Everyone is pissed off that they were not able to give any specific information”.

The source noted that Elmar Brok, the German centre-right committee chair, was “hesitant” on whether to call for a formal European Parliament probe “at this stage,” but is to file written questions on the affair.

Other committee members indicated that Olaf, the EU’s anti-fraud office, should look into the Eulex allegations.

Another proposal was to recruit an independent investigator from an EU state to conduct a probe.

For his part, Eduard Kukan, a liberal Slovak MEP and a former foreign minister, said in a statement following the hearing that the allegations “have to be thoroughly examined by independent investigators”.

He added that “these accusations have already shaken [Eulex’] credibility”.

Tonino Picula, a centre-left Croatian euro-deputy and also a former foreign minister, said: “The reputation of the European Union on Kosovo is at stake”.

The corruption scandal broke last week when Kosovo Daily Koha Ditore published two stories, citing internal Eulex documents, which said that: top Eulex officials took bribes from Kosovo gangsters to block prosecutions; colluded with criminal suspects; and quashed internal Eulex probes.

They also said Eulex passed classified information to Serbian intelligence services.

Eulex claims all the problems are being addressed by an internal investigation launched in 2013.

But its only action so far has been to suspend Maria Bamieh - a British prosecutor seconded to the EU mission - on grounds that she leaked information to Koha Ditore.

Bamieh and Koha Ditore say she was not the source of the leaks.

But she began to speak to media after being fired in order to protect her reputation.

She told EUobserver last Thursday that Eulex’ internal investigation is a “lie … a complete joke” because key suspects are not being questioned and are still allowed to work on sensitive cases.

She added that Gentilini should be held responsible due to the EU’s history of “passing the buck”.

“I name him because, at the end of the day, Eulex is run by the EEAS [the EU foreign service]. But they always … say: ‘It’s not us. It’s the [EU] Council’. The Council says: ‘It’s not us. It’s the EEAS’. Nobody takes responsibility. The EEAS should have some kind of transparency and accountability mechanism for its missions”.

Eulex currently employs 1,600 policemen, judges, and prosecutors seconded from around Europe. It is by far the EU's biggest foreign crisis mission.