Police launch EU anti-corruption raids in four countries

Brussels - Police in Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Italy launched simultaneous dawn raids Tuesday in a corruption investigation involving European public servants, the Brussels prosecutors office said.

More than 150 police took part in more than 30 raids, including at the European Commission's premises and the European Parliament in Brussels, in which investigators seized numerous documents, it said.

Homes, businesses and banking offices were also raided. Police were questioning an undisclosed number of individuals and the prosecutors office would not rule out arrests being made.

The investigation is trying to establish "the conditions under which some European public tenders were awarded, in the framework of the search for buildings aimed at housing European Commission delegations abroad and the installation of security equipment for these buildings," the prosecutors said.

The probe was looking into whether European civil servants and company managers were involved in organised crime, associating with known criminals, violating professional secrets, forgery and breaking public procurement laws.

The investigation was launched three years ago.

The Commission, the EU's executive body, said it was cooperating fully with the inquiry.

"The Commission... is collaborating fully with the national authorities carrying out this inquiry in the interest of shedding full light on the allegations and suspicisions that exist," a spokesman said.

"It's an ongoing investigation so it's not appropriate at this time for the Commission to comment on this investigation," said chief spokesman Johannes Laitenberger.

"Until the end of the inquiry and facts are established, presumption of innocence must prevail," he said.

Laitenberger said he did not know about any homes being searched and refused to comment when asked whether the people concerned at the Commission would stay on in their posts.

He added that the EU's OLAF anti-fraud office was assisting in the inquiry.

The prosecutors office said OLAF, Italian Carabinieri, French financial police, and Belgian federal and fraud squad officers had all played a role in the raids.

Agence France Presse