Mogherini, exjefa diplomática de la UE, investigada por fraude, Ucrania, la OTAN y el lavado verde
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00:00Good morning, it is Wednesday the 3rd of December. I'm Maeve McMahon and this is Europe Today,
00:21your news's daily live fix of European news and analysis.
00:25Coming up today, red cheeks here in Brussels. The EU Foreign Affairs Headquarters, the EEAS
00:32and the College of Europe in Bruges were raided yesterday by police. The former EU Foreign
00:37Affairs Chief Federica Mogherini and other top officials are now in custody as part of
00:42a probe into alleged fraud. For more on this developing story that came as a big shock to
00:48many here in Brussels, we're joined here on set by Euronews's EU editor Maria Thedeo.
00:52Good morning, Maria. Good morning. Tell us, what do we know so far? Well, look, it's a bombshell,
00:57as you say, in Brussels and also I would argue even European diplomatic circles because of
01:02the allegations, but also the people allegedly involved, the faces of it. Federica Mogherini,
01:08as you say, she was a former high representative for the EU under the Juncker Commission. So that
01:13is the top European diplomat at the time, Stefano Sanino, who has also been detained for questioning.
01:20He's a top tier civil servant who still works at the European Commission and a third individual
01:26connected to the College of Europe, which is an educational institution, very connected to the EU too.
01:32So in terms of the allegations, yesterday, the European Public Prosecutor's Office assisted
01:37by the Belgian police searched the premises of the external action service. That is in very simple
01:43terms, a sort of foreign office for the EU and the College of Europe. What they believe,
01:49and again, these are allegations at this point still, is that there is enough evidence to suspect
01:54that there was fraudulent behavior when it comes to a contract that was tendered by the external
01:59action service to the College of Europe related to the establishment of a diplomatic academy. Now,
02:06what they argue is that fraudulent behavior may be extended or as a result of a heads up that the
02:12College of Europe got before the tendered was public. And obviously that gave them an advantage
02:17over the rivals. That is the center of the allegations at this point. I should note, we have not been able
02:22to reach out to for comment to Federica Mogherini or Stefano Sanino. And of course, this is an ongoing
02:27investigation and they have not been charged yet, but they are detained for questioning.
02:32And of course, Federica Mogherini is very well known here in diplomatic circles. But just remind our viewers
02:36in case they're not so sure and they don't remember her.
02:38Absolutely. And look, this is an Italian politician. She was a former foreign minister under the Matteo Renzi
02:44government, extremely well connected in European circles. Again, she was a top diplomat for Juncker and then became
02:52the rector of the College of Europe. And just to put life outside of the European bubble and the Brussels
02:58bubble, the College of Europe is an institution which is seen as a sort of gateway as a path to a
03:04golden ticket to get a top European civil servant job. Of course, this is an institution that sometimes
03:10really fast tracks careers. And in Brussels, you know this very well, Maeve. It's about the people that you know,
03:16the connections that you know, the Rolodexa. It's a town that, in a way, it's a very small circle.
03:22Of course, being well connected, it's not a crime. It's not illegal. But the question obviously is,
03:26what do you do with those connections?
03:28Indeed. Maria, today on Euronews' EU Editor, thank you so much for those details. And of course,
03:32for more on that fast moving story, do keep an eye on Euronews.com.
03:36But now, coming up, we'll be joined by the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics winner, the French economist,
03:42Philippe Agion. Known for spearheading the theory of innovation-driven growth and creative destruction,
03:48he's a professor at the College de France and is the Chair of Innovation and Growth at INSEAD Business School.
03:54Good morning, Professor, and congratulations on your prestigious win. And of course, to your co-winners.
03:58Thanks for joining us.
04:00Thank you so much. Thanks for being with you.
04:04Look, you advocate for this idea of creative destruction, a concept that could alarm our viewers this morning.
04:10Just remind us what exactly it is.
04:12Well, creative destruction is the process whereby new innovations displace old technologies.
04:19So the new replaces the old. And progress has always gone through.
04:24You know, when you invented the computer, the typewriter became obsolete.
04:28And, you know, we keep the new, the new continuously replaces the old.
04:35And you see innovation as a means to sustain long term economic growth.
04:41How can the EU copy and paste this thinking?
04:44Well, the EU, there is not enough creative destruction in the EU because, you know, for example, in the US,
04:51if you look at the five most innovating firms in the US nowadays, they are not the same as they were 25 years ago.
05:01In the EU, they are essentially the same because we remain stuck in mid-tech incremental innovation,
05:08whereas they do much more breakthrough high tech innovation in the US and even in China now.
05:14So EU is lagging behind China and the US when it comes to breakthrough frontier innovation.
05:21That's what Mario Draghi, of course, warned in his report. He called a wake up call for the EU.
05:26So how can we prevent the slow agony, to quote Mario Draghi?
05:30I think you need first, you know, a true single market for goods and services, because when you do big innovation, you want a big market.
05:38And also with a big market, with a single market, you have more competition and competition boost frontier innovation.
05:45I innovate to escape competition with you. So you need a single market. We don't have that.
05:50Each country in each member state has its own regulation to the European regulation. We call that gold plating.
05:58The second thing is that you need a good financial ecosystem of innovation.
06:02Venture capital, institutional investors like pension funds, mutual funds.
06:07We don't have enough of those. And those, they induce risk taking because, you know, in Europe, we don't take enough risk.
06:14We don't, you know, forgive short term failure. You know, to innovate breakthrough, you need to tell people no problem if you fail.
06:24We encourage you to fail because if you fail, it's that you tried. And we don't have financial institutions that encourage risk taking sufficiently.
06:33And the third thing, we don't have anything like the DARPA, this modern way to do industrial policy.
06:38You see that pro-competition way, they did that for defense and space in the US, DARPA, they did that for vaccines, it was the BARDA.
06:46We don't have anything equivalent in Europe. In Europe, in the name of competition policy, we precluded industrial policy.
06:53But what about people who fear change, they fear technology, they're afraid of the future, especially with AI developments as well?
06:59You see what I mean? They, they are, they, you know, yeah, they, they, they, they, Europe is a, is a regulatory giant and a budgetary dwarf.
07:14We regulate too much and we don't invest enough.
07:17Indeed. And that's why they always say that here we regulate in China, they replicate. And of course, in the United States, they innovate.
07:25They more than replicate now in China. They now are a frontier. They became frontier innovation.
07:30They are ahead of us in several, you know, several technologies. And, and the problem is that Europe is declining when it comes to frontier innovation.
07:39China is rising and the US is above. And we, that's where we need to wake up.
07:44But there's a drive, of course, in Brussels now to simplify. That is the word of the day. Do you welcome this? And how do you find the balance?
07:50Yeah, we have too many regulations. I think we need regulations. For example, on AI, with too many regulations. And regulation discourages new firms. Large, large incumbent firms can cope with regulation. New entrants are discouraged by regulation.
08:05So we need to regulate, but we over-regulate in Europe. That's, that's the problem. That's, that's a big barrier. And yeah, so we need that. That's something we need to work on, particularly for AI. If we want to, if we want to, you know, to harness the AI revolution, that's what we need to do. Yeah.
08:21Okay. Professor Philippe Agion, thank you so much for speaking to us here this morning on Europe Today from Paris.
08:28Thank you so much. Have a lovely day. Thank you. Bye-bye.
08:31Bye-bye. But now, back here in Brussels, NATO foreign ministers are gathering to discuss a US-led peace plan for Ukraine. But their American counterpart, Marco Rubio, is not around the table.
08:44This after Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner concluded talks in Moscow yesterday. For more, we can go straight over to the headquarters of NATO outside Brussels and bring in your news correspondent, Shona Murray.
08:55Good morning, Shona. Great to have you with us. How can ministers discuss a US plan, Shona, without Ukraine around the table and, of course, without the US Secretary of State around the table?
09:05Well, of course, here at this NATO foreign affairs ministers meeting, there is that question outstanding, even though NATO officials have been playing it down.
09:14But at the same time, we know that these discussions with Russia, with Ukraine, the United States have deep consequence for the fate of the European continent and NATO.
09:22And you'd imagine that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would use this opportunity to debrief his 31 allies. Now, speaking, already listening and speaking to some foreign affairs ministers this morning, they're saying that they really don't have a huge amount of confidence that Russia is genuinely coming to the table to end the war in Ukraine.
09:39But at the same time, some are saying it is crunch time. Now, we know that obviously Europe is also paying the heavier burden when it comes to military support for Ukraine.
09:47So you'd imagine that Marco Rubio could be here. So it is an outstanding issue. One diplomat told me last night that essentially, if Marco Rubio doesn't come to the next two NATO meetings, they will be worried.
09:59But for the moment, they're not going to take too much concern on it. Now, one of the other issues on the agenda today, which is quite unusual for a NATO foreign affairs ministers meeting, is the issue of frozen Russian assets across Europe and across the world.
10:11We know that Belgium here has the highest amount, about 180 billion, but they're also in France, the UK and Canada.
10:17So there'll be a discussion about what should be done with these frozen Russian assets, because there was concerns that the US might want to use them, should they be taken and then used and given to Ukraine for reconstruction.
10:28And I caught up with the Canadian foreign affairs minister, Anita Nand, and she told me that this is certainly something that Canada is looking at.
10:35We are looking at all ways in which we can support Ukraine. For example, we have sanctioned over 4,000 or so entities and organisations that are of Russian origin, as well as individuals.
10:53And we are continually looking for different ways to put pressure on Russia.
10:59Anita Nand there, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs. And meanwhile, showing up Mark Rutte, the NATO Secretary General, he told the press this week there was nothing to worry about. Is he just trying to keep in President Trump's good books, do you think?
11:11Well, I think he's trying to ensure that there's no panic. But if you heard what Mark Rutte has said in the past, remember, he said things like, if Europe doesn't invest now heavily in defence, we may as well all start learning Russian.
11:23So sometimes he can also be panic stricken himself. But I think you're right. He does spend a lot of time trying to placate Donald Trump to ensure that he remains a steadfast member of the NATO alliance.
11:35Because without the United States, there is no North Atlantic Treaty organisation. So that is a crucial part of his role as Secretary General.
11:42And I think that's why people believe that the NATO summit in July, which moved member states to pay 5% in defence, that that was so successful because he was managed to keep Donald Trump on side.
11:52So that is part of it. But like I said to you earlier, the discussion here is that the talks at the moment are at crunch time.
11:59But at the same time, people are quite sceptical that we've been here before with Russia and that there's no evidence in any way that Russia wants to end the war in Ukraine without its maximalist positions being materialised.
12:11Maeve?
12:11OK, thank you so much, Shona Murray there for that live update from the NATO headquarters.
12:16And a press conference, of course, is scheduled for later this afternoon. And we will keep you updated on that.
12:21But moving on, scientists and NGOs are furious with the European Commission for considering gas pipelines as legitimate for EU climate funding.
12:30Our reporters Jakob Janis and Martha Pitego have been taking a look.
12:33How do we power our lifestyle for our cars, homes and factories? We need to slash high bills and break free from Russian gas.
12:46Hydrogen is sold as the magic answer and the EU is betting big on it.
12:51The European Commission just announced a list of 235 energy projects eligible for fast-track funding.
13:00A hundred of them are for hydrogen projects with an estimated total investment budget of 80 billion euros.
13:08These funds are meant for the energy transition.
13:11But there is a catch.
13:14Critics learned that 90% of these hydrogen projects were submitted by gas operators.
13:20They worry the EU might be financing hydrogen-ready pipes that will actually carry dirty fossil gas for years,
13:28because the green supply simply isn't there yet.
13:31That could be seen purely as greenwashing.
13:37Ideally, we want green hydrogen, made cleanly from water and renewable electricity.
13:44However, today, most hydrogen is grey, made from fossil gas in a process that pumps tons of CO2 into the air.
13:54The 80 billion euro question is this.
13:57Are we building a bridge to a greener future or just a lifeline for the gas industry?
14:03Jacob Iannis and Marta Pacego there.
14:10And by the way, the European Commission will present a new proposal to simplify environmental legislation this Wednesday,
14:15so we will keep an eye on that too.
14:17But this brings this Wednesday's edition of Europe Today to an end.
14:21Thank you so much for tuning in.
14:22And come back again tomorrow morning.
14:24I'll be joined here in the studio by the Executive Vice President of the European Commission.
14:28That's the Romanian politician, Roxana Minsati.
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