Eurostat – call for Commissioner to quit

Date:18/09/03

By David Cronin

ROMANO Prodi will face calls next week for at least one of his European Commission team to resign over the Eurostat fraud scandal.

The Commission president is due to appear before political group leaders in the European Parliament on Thursday (25 September) for what insiders expect to be a grilling over why suspected mismanagement in the Union's data agency went unnoticed for many years.

He is due to present a report from the Commission's task force, set up to investigate the Eurostat affair in July. That followed the Commission's discovery that Eurostat had used "double accounts", outside its official records, extensively until 1999. It is believed these had been used as a tool to defraud tens of millions of euro.

The focus of some group leaders is due to be Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pedro Solbes as Eurostat's activities fall within his portfolio. The Spaniard angered MEPs in July, when he told the Parliament's budget control committee he could not be held accountable for being unaware that the agency was implicated in a multi-million euro fraud.

Graham Watson, leader of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament, is calling for Solbes to either step down voluntarily or for Prodi to insist he does so. "Prodi has to act to draw a line under the whole affair," he said. "I think this does require the resignation of a commissioner."

Jens-Peter Bonde, leader of the Europe of Democracies and Diversities (EDD) group, said he feels both Solbes and Budget Commissioner Michaele Schreyer have a case to answer. Schreyer has been attacked by some MEPs for claiming she was not made aware of a 1999 audit into irregularities at Eurostat until May this year.

"We do not accept that a commissioner is not informed," said Bonde. "It is his responsibility to be informed."

However, the largest two political groups, the Socialists and the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), do not appear to share the appetite for blood.

Portuguese Socialist Paulo Casaca, an outspoken member of the budget control committee, argued it would be pointless for Solbes to resign if it later emerges that fraud in the Commission is not confined to Eurostat. "It is true that Mr Solbes" performance in front of our committee [in July] was far from exceptional," Casaca remarked. "But to conclude the problem will be solved by firing Mr Solbes seems to me to be out of reality."

Another Socialist source said he felt Solbes, a minister in Spain's left-leaning government during the 1990s, had become something of a scapegoat. The source pointed out that Solbes' compatriot, Commission vice-president Loyola de Palacio, had been implicated in a controversy over the misuse of EU subsidies for flax growers during her previous tenure as Spain's agriculture minister but has retained her current post. "There seems to be an argument that just because Solbes didn't put up a great defence in Parliament, he should have to resign," the source added. "But we have to be consistent. We could throw the book at a few other commissioners."

An EPP spokesman said his group would study the information which Prodi is due to present before deciding if resignations are required. "We want to see the reports and ask him lots of questions. If something serious has happened, it should be seriously investigated."

Next week's meeting is due to be held in camera, although sources say the political group leaders may discuss the possibility of recording it for broadcast when they meet today (18 September).

Prodi's spokesman Reijo Kemppinen said yesterday: "Personally, the president has no objections to speaking about this in public."

When the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, appears before political group leaders in the European Parliament on 25 September 2003, he is likely to face calls for at least one member of his European Commission team to resign over the fraud scandal in Eurostat, the EC's statistics agency. The spotlight may fall on the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Pedro Solbes, as Eurostat falls within his remit.