EUROPE’S biggest publisher is to begin a legal battle against the European Commission tomorrow over allegations that the EU abused its power to silence an investigative journalist whose stories uncovered corruption within the EU.

The court case could seriously damage the credibility of the Commission and hinder its attempts to give the EU more powers of prosecution.

The German company Bertelsmann, parent company of the current affairs magazine Stern, is taking the Commission to the European Court of Justice, the EU’s highest court, after Belgian police raided the home and office of Hans-Martin Tillack, the magazine’s Brussels correspondent.

Herr Tillack is one of the most prolific investigative journalists in Brussels. He uncovered scandals such as the Eurostat affair last year and has caused repeated embarrassment to the Commission and its own internal anti-fraud unit, Olaf.

Belgian police removed boxes of documents, computers and address books in the raid, after Olaf pressed them to investigate whether Mr Tillack obtained information by bribing Olaf’s own officials, an allegation that he denies.

Olaf’s own watchdog committee has said it is “out of control” and suggested that it was motivated by vindictiveness against a troublesome journalist. Herr Tillack has still not been charged with any offence.

At the court hearing tomorrow, Stern is expected to demand that the Commission, which runs Olaf, is barred from getting access to its documents, annuls the transfer of documents to the Belgian authorities, and pays €250,000 (£166,000) in damages.

Stern has also started three other court cases: against the Belgian prosecutor’s office; against Franz-Hermann Bruener, the head of Olaf, for slander; and against a former Commission spokesman, Joachim Gross, the source of the allegation that Herr Tillack paid for information.

Herr Gross, who was dismissed by the Commission for unrelated reasons, said he had heard from Wilfred Krause, a news editor at Stern, that Herr Tillack had paid a source, which is a crime under Belgian law. However, Herr Krause denies having spoken to Herr Gross, who has since been ordered by a German court not to repeat the allegations.

Olaf asked prosecutors in Brussels and Germany to begin a simultaneous investigation of Stern offices in the two countries. A German judge decided there was insufficient evidence and police there were not given a search warrant.

Six Belgian police officers went to Herr Tillack’s home in Brussels at 7am and demanded entry. He told The Times: “I was standing at the door in my boxer shorts when they came into my apartment and took my address books, my personal computer, bank account statements, my mobile phone. I was shocked.”

The police then escorted Herr Tillack to his office and confiscated his work computer and boxes of files and contacts. They also called a locksmith to open up a filing cabinet. Throughout the tenhour ordeal, officers refused to let Herr Tillack contact anyone. “I asked for a lawyer several times, and I was refused. I wasn’t allowed to talk to my wife, I wasn’t allowed to talk to my employer,” he said.

Raymond Kendall, the chairman of Olaf’s independent watchdog committee, recently told the House of Lords that the raid in Brussels was unjustified.

“It was purely on the basis of hearsay evidence from an informant, one informant, who happened to be in the public relations office of the Commission before he was dismissed. Any normal person would have to say that somewhere along the line Olaf were probably trying to get back at this man,” he said.

Olaf denies that it was being vindictive. A spokesman said: “We are just doing our job, irrespective of the person. We are just trying to find out corruption.”

It denies that it collaborated with the Belgian police to ensure that Stern was raided, saying that it merely passed on evidence to the police, who made the decision to launch the raid. Yet Mr Kendall said “there had obviously been some agreement” between Olaf and the police to ensure a search warrant was issued.

Tomorrow’s hearing will be followed by a court case to investigate whether Olaf and the Commission acted responsibly. The Commission has been pushing for extended powers of investigation with a pan-European prosecutor. If it is found to have been at fault, that will give ammunition to critics who say that the power to prosecute should be left with national governments.

BRITAIN MUST PAY MORE

Chris Patten, EU External Relations Commissioner, has said that Britain must accept cuts in its EU budget rebate. The Commission proposed last week that Britain’s €4.6 billion (£3 billion) annual rebate would be halved. Mr Patten called the proposal unfair but said it was unrealistic for Britain to try to maintain its rebate.

“Unless we’re prepared to negotiate, we find ourselves having to defend a situation in which Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands pay twice as much as we are,” he said.

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