Geopolitical Turn in the EU’s Fight Against Corruption: Explaining Narrative Shifts and Coalition Formations

Recent geopolitical developments in and around the European neighborhood have affected not only the Union’s security strategy but also its anti-corruption agenda and policies. While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the return of Donald Trump have led the EU to reconsider its security architecture, they have also prompted the Union to reassess its vulnerability to foreign interference. Over the past few years, the EU’s democratic decision-making has increasingly been undermined by attempts by external actors. For instance, Czech authorities uncovered a pro-Russian influence operation involving Russian funding of the Prague-based media outlet, Voice of Europe. Moreover, some MEPs in the European Parliament have faced scrutiny for alleged financial ties to Russia aimed at advancing narratives aligned with Russian interests (European Parliament, 2024). Finally, the European Parliament was shaken by a major corruption scandal in late 2022, in which several MEPs were alleged to have received cash from Qatar and Morocco in exchange for favorable resolutions in their favor. Following the rule-of-law crisis in the EU and the substantial increase in the EU budget during the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-corruption has primarily been discussed from economic and democratic perspectives. Many actors, particularly pro-European MEPs in the European Parliament, have called for stronger supranational anti-corruption action, citing democratic deficits and the need to safeguard the EU’s financial interests and taxpayers’ money. This paper argues that, alongside economic and normative concerns, the EU has increasingly invoked security frames in advancing a more decisive anti-corruption agenda. It does so by analyzing corruption coverage in key media outlets, including the Financial Times, POLITICO, The Economist, and Le Monde, from 2019 to the present, and by examining key corruption-related debates in the European Parliament using verbatim reports from the 2019–2024 term. The paper identifies 2022 as a turning point in the growing salience of security frames in both media coverage and parliamentary debates, marked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Qatargate scandal. It shows that corruption has not only gained prominence over time but has increasingly been discussed alongside foreign interference and transnational crime, indicating a geopolitical turn in the EU’s fight against corruption. In this context, concepts such as party financing, revolving doors, shell companies, illicit gains, safe havens, and beneficial ownership have become more prominent, particularly in European Parliament debates, contributing to mounting pressure on the Commission and the Council to take more decisive action, such as termination of golden visa schemes and mandatory beneficial ownership registry, to prevent transnational corruption and foreign influence within the EU. The paper concludes with an analysis on coalition formations in the European Parliament. It examines whether new coalitions emerge or traditional ones break when corruption is framed as a security threat rather than as an economic and/or democratic issue.