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Judicial investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office into the former president of the European Investment Bank (EIB), Werner Hoyer. The former manager, 72, is under investigation for corruption and abuse of influence and for misappropriation of European Union funds. He has rejected the allegations as absurd, and said he will cooperate with investigating authorities.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (acronym in English: Eppo) which deals with cases of incorrect use of European funds, announced the investigation this morning, underlining that the operational arm of the EIB had accepted the Prosecutor’s request to remove the immunity to two of his former employees and to allow searches of his offices. A few hours earlier, the British newspaper Financial Times had announced the news of the investigation from its sources.
The name of Hoyer, who led the bank between 2012 and 2023, was not revealed by prosecutors but shortly afterwards he himself released a statement through his lawyers admitting that he was one of the two suspects. The former official specified that the investigation concerns monetary compensation paid to another outgoing employee of the bank, which he had signed as president following «the indications of the department that dealt with the matter and of the general secretary of the EIB ».
“The accusations against me – continued Hoyer – are decidedly absurd and unfounded.” He then added that he was cooperating fully with the authorities and asked the EIB to do the same. A spokesperson for the Bank said: “We will cooperate with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office as requested” without commenting on the ongoing investigation. Hoyer’s lawyer, Nikolaos Gazeas, said his client had to sign the deal now under scrutiny and that he was not involved in the negotiations, having instead acted on the basis of a memo submitted to him by other managers, who had told him assured that the agreement had been legally approved and subjected to all checks.
Hoyer is a German economist and Free Democratic Party politician. The European Investment Bank is the credit arm of the European Union and the largest multilateral credit institution in the world, with firepower of more than €500 billion. It is based in Luxembourg.
