Brussels, Belgium. Belgian police raided properties belonging to the European Commission on Thursday as part of an investigation into alleged irregularities in the sale of EU real estate assets. The investigation covers the period when Johannes Hahn served as the European Commission’s budget commissioner.
Investigation and scope
The Financial Times reported that the investigation is being carried out by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) and is centred on the sale of EU real estate between 2019 and 2024.
The report said the EPPO’s investigation concerns 23 buildings acquired from the EU by the Belgian sovereign wealth fund SFPIM in 2024 for a total of €900 million.
EPPO statement
EPPO spokeswoman Tine Hollevoet told the Financial Times that “the EPPO can confirm that it is conducting evidence-collecting activities in an ongoing investigation”.
“There is nothing else that we can share at this stage, in order not to endanger the ongoing procedures and their outcome,” she added.
Johannes Hahn’s roles
Hahn was appointed as the European Commission’s envoy for the Cyprus problem in May last year and has visited Cyprus twice, meeting President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on both occasions.
He served as budget commissioner in Ursula von der Leyen’s first commission from 2019 to 2024. He previously served as regional policy commissioner under former commission presidents Jose Manuel Barroso and Jean-Claude Juncker from 2010 to 2019, and was Austria’s science minister from 2007 to 2010.
Reactions in northern Cyprus
Ersin Tatar, Erhurman’s predecessor, opposed Hahn’s appointment, saying in July last year that “this appointment was made without the approval of the Turkish Cypriot side and in defiance of our will”.
Tahsin Ertugruloglu, the north’s ‘foreign minister’, described Hahn’s appointment as a “provocative step” and said the EU had “once again revealed its biased stance on the Cyprus issue”.
What impact could the investigation have on the European Commission’s handling of EU real estate sales?
