Police raid European People’s Party headquarters in Brussels

Police on Tuesday raided the Brussels headquarters of the European People’s Party, the pan-European Union political group that includes Fine Gael, as part of a corruption investigation originating from Germany.

Belgian police and German investigators seized documents from the EPP offices during the raid, which is separate to the sprawling investigation known as Qatargate, which has seen a series of officials and European Parliament lawmakers arrested due to suspected bribery by overseas states.

In a statement, the EPP group said it was co-operating fully and that the operation related to an inquiry that was taking place in the central German state of Thuringia.

“The European People’s Party confirms that representatives from the Belgian and German police authorities visited the party headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday April 4th. The visit is connected to an ongoing inquiry in Thuringia, Germany,” the party said in a statement.

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“The party is co-operating in full transparency with the authorities involved, providing all relevant information and documentation. As this is an ongoing legal investigation, the EPP will not provide any further comment.”

The prosecutors office in Thuringia have told media that the EPP itself is not suspected of wrongdoing.

Local German media have reported that the raid was part of inquiries into a leading member of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union party in Thuringia who worked for the EPP during the European elections campaign in 2019.

The German investigation is focused on whether he had a role in the awarding of a contract to an internet agency involved in the EPP’s digital campaign.

Lawyers representing the politician, who has been named by the German press, have denied all wrongdoing on the part of their client.

The centre-right EPP is the largest political group in the European Parliament with 175 out of its 705 members and some of the EU’s top leadership hail from its ranks, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola.

[ ‘Hard cash’: Roberta Metsola on Qatargate and how Ukraine transformed the EU ]

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is one of several national leaders in EU member states who are members of the powerful group, along with leaders of Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden.