Disciplinary rules biased in favour of executive, says Andreasen

By David Cronin

Date: 22/07/04

MARTA Andreasen, former accountant of the European Commission, has criticized the disciplinary board which is hearing her case for using new rules introduced after she was suspended.

According to the Argentine-Spaniard, the revised disciplinary rules are more favourable to the Commission than to her.

Andreasen was stripped of her accounting officer job and moved to another post in 2002 after complaining to MEPs and the Court of Auditors that the accounting system applying to the Union's €100 billion annual budget was "vulnerable to fraud".

When she was suspended from the Commission later that year, she was told she would face a disciplinary procedure under the staff regulations. The main charges against her were that she had commented publicly about matters relating to her work and had failed to follow orders from the Commission's hierarchy.

A disciplinary board set up in March to examine the case against her has decided the revised staff regulations, which came into effect on 1 May, should apply.

"The alleged breaches on which they suspended me took place in 2002," she told European Voice. "It is against common law to be judged by rules promulgated after the events."

Andreasen said that the section in the new regulations relating to disciplinary procedures "significantly favours the Commission, to my detriment" as it confers additional rights on the institution to obtain legal advice during a disciplinary procedure.

Commission spokesman Michael Mann said that the new regulations were designed to ensure greater fairness in disciplinary proceedings, especially by having a chairperson of the board who is separate from the institution. "The disciplinary board is now a professional, independent body," he said. "It is also normal that both parties should have access to lawyers, who have equal status."

The disciplinary board - chaired by José Luis da Cruz Vilaça, a former president at the European Court of First Instance - is expected to finish its work in the autumn. Its four other members are senior officials and representatives of a staff consultation committee.

Andreasen said requests for a copy of minutes of the meetings that she has had with the board have been declined.

Mann said: "The staff regulations in the past have said that disciplinary proceedings should be secret. In this case, the president of the board has decided they [the minutes] shouldn't be given out to anyone, except the European Court of Justice."

Marta Andreasen, former accountant of the European Commission, has criticized the disciplinary board which is hearing her case for using new rules introduced after she was suspended.