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Special Report: The "Epstein Earthquake" Rattles the European Union

Patricia Romero - International - Politics
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BRUSSELS / LONDON - The Epstein files have thrown the European Union into a deep political and moral reckoning, toppling high‑profile figures, triggering national investigations, and exposing efforts to shape EU politics from the far right.

Political fallout in EU member states
Across Europe, senior officials have resigned or been forced from public roles after newly released documents showed more extensive ties to Jeffrey Epstein than previously known. In the UK, former ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson was fired and later stepped down from the House of Lords as police opened a misconduct probe over his contacts and information shared with Epstein, contributing to a leadership crisis for Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Similar turbulence has hit Norway, Sweden, Slovakia and others, where high‑ranking officials have quit or faced censure over trips, communications, or social ties now documented in the files.

The documents also implicate former EU‑linked figures, including Miroslav Lajčák, once the EU’s top diplomat in Bosnia, who resigned as Slovakia’s national security adviser after messages emerged discussing “young girls” with Epstein. In Sweden, UN official Joanna Rubinstein resigned after the files detailed a 2012 visit to Epstein’s Caribbean island, further fueling public anger over elite impunity.

EU institutions and rule‑of‑law concerns
The European Commission has acknowledged reviewing parts of Peter Mandelson’s tenure as EU trade commissioner, when he exchanged numerous emails with Epstein, including about visits and lobbying around a possible pardon. Commission spokespeople say they have reached “no concrete conclusions” and are not proactively mining all the files, even as they admit they cannot rule out that other EU officials or staff may be implicated. That cautious stance has sparked criticism from transparency advocates and some MEPs who argue that EU institutions risk appearing complacent on corruption, abuse of power, and the protection of minors.

The scandal comes as the EU promotes rule‑of‑law conditionality and human‑rights benchmarks for member states and candidate countries, creating a damaging perception gap between Brussels’ external messaging and its internal response. Legal experts warn that even if many potential crimes are time‑barred, revelations about undisclosed contacts, conflict of interest, and abuse of office could still carry political and administrative consequences inside EU structures.

National investigations and security worries
Several EU states have launched or expanded investigations focused on both potential victims and national‑security angles raised by the files. Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have set up wide‑ranging reviews of the documents, with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk creating an analytical team to search for Polish victims and possible links between Epstein’s network and Russian intelligence services. Warsaw has framed the issue not only as a child‑protection matter but also as a question of foreign influence and blackmail risks among European elites.

In Belgium, a political storm has erupted after documents referencing former prime minister Charles Michel’s government surfaced in messages between Epstein and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who boasted that his 2018 Brussels speech helped precipitate the collapse of the governing coalition. The Belgian Socialist Party has warned that the episode may illustrate how the country served as a “test case” for broader far‑right strategy to destabilize EU governments, drawing sharp rebuttals from liberal opponents who accuse them of conflating Epstein’s crimes with domestic political disputes.

Epstein, Bannon and EU political engineering
Beyond personal scandals, the files shed light on attempts to reshape European politics from the fringes. Newly disclosed correspondence shows Steve Bannon courting Epstein’s support and funding to strengthen far‑right and eurosceptic parties ahead of the 2019 European Parliament elections, including Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France and Matteo Salvini’s League in Italy. In those exchanges, Bannon boasted of advising leaders across the European “new right,” from Le Pen and Salvini to Viktor Orbán and Nigel Farage, and predicted their bloc in the Parliament could more than double in size, enabling them to block “crypto rules or anything we want.”

Other messages reveal Epstein’s own political musings, such as describing the 2016 Brexit vote as “just the beginning” of a return to “tribalism,” suggesting he saw EU fractures as part of a broader nationalist wave he wanted to exploit. Analysts at European think tanks say the files highlight how access‑driven networks around money, sex, and power blurred into projects to steer EU policy, particularly on migration, financial regulation, and digital oversight.

Public trust, media scrutiny and EU’s next steps
The disclosures have dominated headlines across Europe, producing a level of elite accountability that contrasts sharply with what some observers describe as a more “muted” reckoning in the United States. European media have spotlighted royal connections, disgraced ex‑ministers and ambassadors, and the possibility that blackmail or kompromat tactics may have been used to shape public policy, deepening public mistrust toward governing classes. Victims’ advocates argue the scandal underscores persistent failures to protect minors from powerful abusers, even in societies that pride themselves on robust legal safeguards.

Within the EU, pressure is building for more systematic responses, including internal ethics reviews, greater disclosure of past contacts with Epstein and his associates, and potential EU‑level inquiries into foreign influence and child‑protection gaps. With more batches of documents expected and national probes only beginning to sift through millions of pages, officials and analysts say the Epstein files are likely to haunt European politics for months or years, challenging the Union’s self‑image as a global champion of human rights and the rule of law.