Three Italians, including a European Commission official, have been arrested in a multi-million-euro case of suspected corruption involving public tenders for EC buildings, Belgian prosecutors said today.
Jos Colpin, spokesman for the Brussels public prosecutor, said a 46-year-old European civil servant, a 60-year-old assistant to a member of the European Parliament and a 39-year-old director of private companies, all resident in the Belgian capital, had been placed under arrest.
"It seems to be a very big case of corruption," Mr Colpin told a news conference.
He did not release the suspects' names. The three were suspected of defrauding European taxpayers of several million euros over more than 10 years, he said.
"It was a matter of not following the rules for public tenders which made it possible to favour certain firms which were obliged to pay bribes to those who organised the fraud," Mr Colpin said.
"We're talking about contracts worth several tens of millions of euros, so that means bribes of several million euros."
Police launched dawn raids in Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and France yesterday, seizing documents and questioning suspects and witnesses.
Mr Colpin said 30 EU buildings, banks, company offices and homes in Belgium had been searched, including European Commission headquarters, and dozens of raids had been carried out in Italy, which he called the epicentre of the case.
"When you look at the nationality of the people who were placed in custody and the number of raids carried out in Italy, you get the impression that the main part is in Italy," he said.
The prosecutor said the investigation involved suspected bribery of European civil servants, forming a criminal organisation, violating professional secrecy, breaches of public tender laws and forgery. It concerned the circumstances of tenders for European Commission representation offices in third countries and contracts for installing security systems in those offices.