{"id":742213,"date":"2026-02-04T17:37:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T17:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/742213\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T17:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T17:37:11","slug":"mandelson-should-lose-pension-if-he-broke-eu-rules-in-epstein-scandal-campaigners-say-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/742213\/","title":{"rendered":"Mandelson should lose pension if he broke EU rules in Epstein scandal, campaigners say\u00a0 \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cGiven the severity of allegations concerning Peter Mandelson\u2019s deplorable relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the European Commission and European Anti-Fraud Office must pursue an immediate investigation to establish any potential misconduct both during and beyond his tenure as European Commissioner,\u201d Nick Aiossa, director at Transparency International, a leading anti-corruption campaign group, told POLITICO. \u201cShould it do so, Mandelson must be stripped of his Commissioner\u2019s pension.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Freund, a Green MEP from Germany, condemned the lack of action and investigations against \u201cthe most powerful people on earth\u201d over their links to the disgraced financier. \u201cThat EU commissioners were somehow involved with this universe is just outrageous,\u201d he told POLITICO. \u201cTaking away the pension would be justified if he broke any EU rules.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mandelson, 72, was entitled to an inflation-linked pension <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/politics\/labour\/4996440\/Lord-Mandelson-must-remain-loyal-to-EU-to-guarantee-pension.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reportedly<\/a> worth \u00a331,000 a year when he turned 65 for his four years as a European commissioner. This is on top of other any pensions from his time as an elected politician in the U.K. and in other roles.<\/p>\n<p>Mandelson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has previously said he was wrong to have continued his association with Epstein and apologized \u201cunequivocally\u201d to Epstein\u2019s victims.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, the EU\u2019s anti-fraud office, known as OLAF, said: \u201cWe cannot provide details regarding cases which OLAF may or may not be treating. This is to protect the confidentiality of any possible investigations and of possible ensuing judicial proceedings, as well as to ensure respect for personal data and procedural rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In London, Britain\u2019s Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Mandelson should lose the severance payment he was entitled to when his career as U.K. ambassador to the United States ended over the Epstein scandal. Speaking to Times Radio, Streeting also suggested Mandelson could potentially be stripped of related pension entitlements. <\/p>\n<p>The opposition Reform UK party said Mandelson should lose the pension he\u2019s entitled to receive as a former government minister. <\/p>\n<p>Noah Keate contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cGiven the severity of allegations concerning Peter Mandelson\u2019s deplorable relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the European Commission and European&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[132743,29,45787,2814,2000,299,5187,33189,349,11665,3209,617,28300,48,11587,15,49,3595],"class_list":{"0":"post-742213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-bailout","9":"tag-career","10":"tag-daniel-freund","11":"tag-data","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-european","15":"tag-financial-crime-fraud","16":"tag-fraud","17":"tag-meps","18":"tag-payments","19":"tag-pensions","20":"tag-peter-mandelson","21":"tag-rights","22":"tag-transparency","23":"tag-united-kingdom","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-wes-streeting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116013580095175919","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}