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Welcome to the newsletter of Follow the Money’s EU desk, with insights from our EU specialists, news from the Brussels bubble, and the latest on our investigations!

In this week’s edition, we dive into the IT row between the European Commission and top EU prosecutors – what’s really going on? Meanwhile, Dutch researchers are running into trouble due to the EU’s open access policies. We’ll also uncover how a Trump-loving billionaire is backing the Tony Blair Institute, and take a closer look at the new Ombudsman election. 

EU prosecutors get a raise, but not enough to end IT conflict with Commission

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) will get €85,9 million for the year 2025, negotiators of the EU’s main institutions – Commission, Council and Parliament – agreed at the end of November. That is more than in 2024 (76,4 million), but well below what the EPPO asked for (108,1 million). 

Why it matters: The EPPO is keeping a sharp eye on anyone trying to misuse EU money. The Luxembourg-based prosecutor service investigates cases of fraud and corruption against the EU budget and brings them to national courts. This powerful and very necessary watchdog the Commission has helped to create started operations in 2021. And it’s not just doing its job quietly – increasingly becoming a nuisance for the Brussels establishment. 

Sensitive cases: The EPPO isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers. In 2022, it opened an investigation into the EU’s vaccine procurement deals, including those controversial text messages between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. More recently, it started probing the royal treatment the Commission’s former top transport official Hendrik Hololei got from Qatar Airways – just as the Commission was quietly trying to handle the matter in-house. The EPPO also started high-profile probes into the former presidents of the European Investment Bank and the European Court of Auditors.

Conflict over IT autonomy: Despite its handling of these sensitive investigations, the EPPO still relies on IT services from the Commission. In February 2024, the Commission proposed ending this contract by the end of December but didn’t suggest extra funding to make up for it. In a letter to the Commission on 9 April, which was first reported by Politico and obtained by Follow the Money, EPPO chief Laura Kövesi warned that such a move “would seriously jeopardise” the EPPO’s ability to do its job.   

Commission: This is enough: The Commission now considers that the 2025 budget “will allow the EPPO to become IT-independent from the Commission, as planned,” a spokesperson told Follow the Money.

EPPO: Not even close: The EPPO disagrees, calling its 2025 budget “wholly insufficient” to reach IT autonomy. The budget includes money for four new full-time positions (FTEs) to achieve this goal – peanuts compared to the 37 the EPPO asked for. To fill the gap, the agency says it will now have to pull 15 staff members away from investigations.

Still on the table: The EPPO and the Commission started discussions about the issue of IT autonomy in September 2024. The EPPO says it hopes they will conclude “as soon as possible, with a common agreement on the number of people required to maintain a fully running and secure IT environment”.

Broader issues: Not only the IT autonomy is at stake, the EPPO warned: “The EPPO’s ability to efficiently combat EU fraud is affected negatively. The EPPO investigations will be slower, and the outcome of court trials put at risk. Three years after the start of EPPO operations, the level of protection of the financial interests of the EU will decrease.”

Other stories from the EU bubble…

Springer Open Access cap hits Dutch universities

Dutch universities have hit a snag – last month, the maximum number of open-access articles allowed under the national deal with Springer Nature was reached. Dutch researchers may now face hefty costs to publish their work in open access. 

The deal with the German-British publisher and the Dutch universities was struck under the so-called “gold” open access policy. Its purpose is to remove paywalls for publicly funded research. But as researchers Sarah Kember and Amy Brand pointed out in this interesting article in The Chronicle last year, this approach has some serious flaws: instead of democratising access, it consolidates power in the hands of big publishers.

This is due to the set-up promoted by the Dutch government under its EU presidency in 2016, where authors or their institutions pay publishers to make their publicly funded work openly accessible – a system that essentially charges for the openness of their own labour, already financed by society. Now, Dutch universities are left grappling with the fallout. 

Follow the Money will be looking more into corporate influence and interests shaping the EU’s research and innovation agenda. Got insights or want to collaborate? Get in touch!

New Ombudsman: Astronaut or SME envoy?

During her decade as European Ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly was a forceful advocate for a more transparent EU bureaucracy and unafraid to ruffle feathers. In a sweeping speech in September, she warned against appointing a successor who would “obediently sweep the floor and never dare to dream of a moon landing.” 

On Tuesday, the Parliament will hear six candidates vying to take over O’Reilly’s job early next year. Some of them have voiced scepticism about her muscular approach to the role. Julia Laffranque, an Estonian judge backed mainly by right-wing MEPs, has argued that the Ombudsman should stay away from controversy by not taking on complaints from political groups. Meanwhile, Dutch candidate Reinier van Zutphen said in his application that “the European Ombudsman should primarily focus on self-employed people and small and medium-sized enterprises.”

Will a more right-wing Parliament elect a more pliant Ombudsman? Human rights NGOs are concerned. “As we enter another 5 years under a Von der Leyen Commission whose secrecy and oblique ways of working are likely to be further entrenched, an effective and courageous Ombudsman is all the more important and relevant as a means of holding the EU institutions to account”, Article 19’s senior EU advocacy officer Mark Dempsey explained to Follow the Money.

Tony Blair Institute backed by Trump-loving billionaire

The thinktank-cum-consultancy founded by former UK prime minister Tony Blair has deployed its latest hire, former Finnish leader Sanna Marin, to lobby Brussels on Ukraine’s and Moldova’s EU accession, as revealed earlier this year by Follow the Money and Finnish daily Iltalehti. The Blair Institute is also active in the Western Balkans and recently warned the Commission in a closed-door meeting that “information manipulation and instability are very much visible on the ground”, according to minutes we obtained.

But here’s the irony: while championing the cause of Ukraine, the institute is heavily bankrolled by the foundation of billionaire Larry Ellison. The co-founder of software goliath Oracle is a keen supporter of US president-elect Donald Trump – arguably the world’s biggest destabiliser). According to recent filings in the EU’s Transparency Register, Ellison’s foundation contributed nearly a third of the Tony Blair Institute’s €152,7 million annual budget.

Why does Ellison give so much? The Blair Institute’s financial statements for previous years state his money funds tech projects in the Global South. But does it also bankroll its lobbying in Brussels? The Blair Institute didn’t respond to our questions.

Our latest reads

A new job, but not by the book

Former EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel proudly announced her new role as president of a political training centre last month. But she forgot one tiny detail: the Commission’s approval.

Because she left her position less than two years ago, she is required to report any new jobs to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

Follow the Money looked into it: Gabriel was elected almost two weeks ago but only informed the Commission last Wednesday – after we started asking questions. Coincidence?

Read the full story by Peter Teffer here.

How the death of Wagner boss Prigozhin might just show Putin’s weakness

His short-lived rebellion last year gripped the world. Mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was marching on Moscow with his Wagner Group, threatening to shake the Kremlin to its core. His plot failed, and weeks later, he was dead in a mysterious plane crash.

In her new book Downfall, Kremlin expert Anna Arutunyan delves into Prigozhin’s rise and fall, uncovering what it reveals about Putin’s grip on power. In an interview with Follow the Money, she explains why Prigozhin’s fate could still challenge Putin – even from beyond the grave.

Read the full interview here.

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