Melike Pala
03 February 2026•Update: 03 February 2026
BRUSSELS
EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic denied on Tuesday any involvement with late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, following the release of US Justice Department documents that contained incidental references to his name.
In a statement delivered through EU Commission spokesperson Balazs Ujvari, Sefcovic said he had "never had any direct or indirect contact, communication or meeting with Jeffrey Epstein" and did not authorize anyone, including Slovak politician Miroslav Lajcak, to mention his name to Epstein.
"Any such mention was made without my knowledge if Miroslav Lajcak has mentioned my name, it was for his own purposes with which I had nothing to do," he said.
"I was also never approached with any request for a meeting or contact with Jeffrey Epstein, neither by Miroslav Lajcak nor by anybody else. I'm appalled that my name was used in that exchange without my knowledge or consent, and I categorically reject any implication of my involvement," he added.
The denial follows the resignation of Lajcak from Slovakia's government on Saturday, after documents reportedly revealed exchanges between him and Epstein.
Sefcovic, who has served as European Commissioner since 2009 and oversees EU trade relations, including the bloc's trade deal with US President Donald Trump.
The US Justice Department recently released more than 3 million pages, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images related to Epstein under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by Trump on Nov. 19 last year.
The files include photos of prominent figures, grand jury transcripts, and investigative records, though many pages were heavily redacted to protect victims.
Epstein was found dead by suicide in a New York City jail on Aug. 10, 2019, while awaiting trial on federal charges of operating a sex trafficking network involving underage girls and women. He was being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center at the time of his death.
Spokesperson Ujvari also said that the EU Commission will assess whether former EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson breached the bloc’s code of conduct following the release of new documents linking him to Epstein.
"As a matter of general practice, as you know, we have rules in place emanating from the Treaty and the Code of Conduct that commissioners, including former commissioners, have to follow. We have an indication that some of these rules may not have been respected. Then, of course, we follow up and we look into these potential breaches," he explained.
He added that the commission would now examine whether, "in light of these newly available documents, there might be breaches of the respective rules with regard to Peter Mandelson."
Mandelson served as the European commissioner for trade in 2004-2008.
Emails, released Friday in the US, revealed that Mandelson forwarded internal government information to Epstein while serving as UK business secretary in 2009.
