Bureau Brussels
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!
Welcome back to Bureau Brussels – your weekly deep dive into the power plays, backroom deals, and investigations shaping life for millions of people across the bloc.
What’s in store this week?
- The words von der Leyen quietly left out of her Congress pitch
- The EU fraud watchdog that ended up reviewing itself
- The Russian oligarchs France and Luxembourg pushed to remove from the EU’s sanctions list
Story of the week
What von der Leyen left out of her Congress of Europe pitch
Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered her much-anticipated “State of the European Union” (SOTEU) address. After months of lobbying and back and forth, watchers across the bloc were keen to hear what the Commission’s top priorities would be for the year ahead.
One of the major announcements was a plan for a new vision for Europe.
“I can announce today that we will be launching a new Congress of Europe,” von der Leyen said in French.
In the version of the speech that was first uploaded to the Commission’s website, the same sentence continued: “which will bring together thinkers and writers, artists and scientists, citizens, and civil society”.
Those words, however, were never spoken by von der Leyen. They were later removed from the official written version of the speech as well.
It was the only significant change between this first uploaded version – which was still available on Friday on the website of the EU’s representation in Luxembourg – and the speech she actually delivered. Other changes were mostly cosmetic.
A Commission official told us that the intention to involve civil society was still the same. But the spoken version of the speech is the official one. And the omission reopens an old wound for civil society organisations, who have been complaining that von der Leyen gives business representatives greater access to the Commission.
The missing words also raise questions about whether von der Leyen was haunted by the fate of one flagship idea from her first term: the New European Bauhaus.
In her first State of the Union speech in 2020, she announced “a new European Bauhaus – a co-creation space where architects, artists, students, engineers, and designers can work together”. The initiative was explicitly inspired by the original Bauhaus movement, founded in Germany in the 1920s as a creative experiment bringing together art, architecture, and social ideas.
Yet, the project later evolved into a Commission programme with funding mechanisms and institutional structures. Critics argued that this moved it away from its original participatory ambitions.
The Congress of Europe that von der Leyen now wants to revive has a similarly ambitious historical precedent. The original Congress was held in The Hague in 1948, bringing together politicians, intellectuals, academics, and civil society figures in committees focused on political, economic, and cultural questions. It helped build momentum for European integration, contributing to the creation of the Council of Europe and influencing the debate that eventually led to the European Communities and today’s EU.
Whether von der Leyen’s new Congress can shape ideas and politics in the same way remains to be seen. But the disappearance of “citizens and civil society” from its very first announcement is a revealing start.
Other news from the EU bubble
MEPs visit the US to discuss tax matters
Last week, members of the European Parliament’s tax committee headed to the United States to discuss how the tax haven of Delaware is combatting tax avoidance. The US didn’t agree to the OECD’s 15% minimum global tax rate in 2025. Instead, it introduced its own equivalent.
Unlike the OECD system, which looks at tax rates country by country, the US approach allows profits and taxes from different countries to be combined. Critics say this leaves the door open for a shifting of profits between jurisdictions to keep the overall tax rate above 15%, while paying much less in tax havens.
“Unfortunately, in our view, the US is lagging behind in matters of transparency and, at times, even moving backwards,” Luděk Niedermayer, delegation leader (EPP), said on Thursday.
Salsabil Fayed
The EU’s top fraud watchdog was just evaluated by … itself
The Commission last week published a report evaluating the power and limits of its “independent” anti-fraud office, OLAF. It took us a while to find out who actually wrote this. The answer could be found in the accompanying staff working document: “The lead Commission service for this file is DG OLAF.”
The Commission has always maintained that OLAF is fully independent when it comes to investigating fraud and corruption.. However, when it comes to policy work, OLAF operates just like any other Commission department.
But critics may still ask: should OLAF really be reviewing the rules governing its own powers, especially when it concludes that those rules are fit for purpose?
Simon Van Dorpe
EU removes Russian oligarchs from sanctions list
EU member states agreed last Tuesday to extend sanctions against Russia – but only after France and Luxembourg pushed to remove two high-profile oligarchs from the list.
France cited “national security” concerns. Luxembourg succeeded in getting Mikhail Fridman, a banking tycoon, off the list. The probable reason: the Russian billionaire has filed a record $16 billion claim against the Luxembourg government for freezing his assets following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The case is still pending. Last year, Follow the Money revealed that Fridman had also used a 1996 investment treaty between Belgium, Luxembourg, and Ukraine to sue the war-torn country.
Hans Wetzels
Our recent publications
Why taking EU funding away from mayors could empower the far right
For nearly 40 years, EU funding has gone directly to poorer regions to help them catch up. Now, the Commission wants to bring much more of that money under central control.
The shift could deepen regional divides and fuel support for the far right. Commission insiders say it could also give Ursula von der Leyen greater control over the EU budget. So why is Brussels pushing ahead, and who stands to lose?
Podcast | The EU’s hydrogen dream in Namibia is falling apart
Namibia was supposed to help power Europe’s climate goals. A multi-billion-dollar project backed by EU money promised to develop green hydrogen, create jobs, and fuel economic growth. But when journalist Olivier van Beemen travelled to Namibia, he found a very different reality.