Federica Mogherini has been detained in Brussels as part of a fraud investigation involving the College of Europe and the EU External Action Service, Belgian media reported.
Mogherini is currently Rector of the College of Europe and served as the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy.
According to Le Soir, searches were carried out today at the European Union diplomatic service in Brussels and in several buildings of the College of Europe in Bruges.
In total, three people were arrested, including Mogherini.
The investigation focuses on suspicions of possible unfair favoritism and competition in the provision by the EU diplomatic service of a nine-month training program for future European diplomats, the Diplomatic Academy of the European Union, for the College of Europe.
The contested facts date from the period 2021-2022 and the contested crimes are fraud in the award of public contracts, corruption, conflict of interest and violation of professional secrecy.