Annelies Verlinden acted as a lawyer for French IT company Sopra Steria in 2019, a year and a half before becoming Belgium’s Minister of the Interior in 2020.
At the time, Verlinden was co-managing partner at the Belgian branch of international law firm DLA Piper. Alongside two colleagues, she represented Sopra Steria in a case before the EU’s General Court in Luxembourg. The company was challenging its exclusion from an IT public tender for the European Parliament, and the ruling was issued on 9 April 2019.
During her tenure as minister, Sopra Steria was awarded the controversial multi-million euro i-Police project, which has been widely criticised for its failure.
Verlinden has denied any connection between her legal work for Sopra Steria and her ministerial role. She stated in the press that there is “absolutely no link between the two cases” and insisted she acted with complete impartiality.
She explained that talks with Sopra Steria about i-Police had already been ongoing for years before she became minister. Furthermore, all procedural rules were followed, and the contract’s daily management was led by the police. She added that her role was limited to overseeing the police organisation.
Verlinden maintains that there are no grounds to suggest a conflict of interest.
