Inquiry into former head of delegation

Date: 15/02/1996

By Michael Mann

THE European Commission has confirmed that officials from the UCLAF anti-fraud unit have begun an “internal inquiry” into the activities of Michael Emerson, former head of the Commission's Moscow delegation.

But they were unwilling to go into details about the allegations which sparked the inquiry.

“We are aware of the accusations made against Mr Emerson concerning his time as head of the Moscow delegation. An internal inquiry is under way, but until it has been completed, we will make no comment or take any measure of any kind and he will be presumed innocent,” said a Commission spokesman.

He added that the accusations originated “from people outside the Commission” and said there was no deadline for the Commission services to complete their investigations.

Having taken up the Moscow posting in 1991, Emerson returned to Brussels in January of this year to join a special 'think tank' established by Foreign Affairs Commissioner Hans van den Broek. Before going to Moscow, Emerson was a senior official in DGII, the Directorate-General for economic affairs, dealing with international economic and financial matters.

Sources stressed that his return from Moscow was “part of the normal rotation of officials” and was not in any way unscheduled.

Indeed, a successor had already been selected to take over from Emerson, although the search for a new mission head has been re-opened after the original nominee, Jim Currie, took the job of director-general of DGXXI (customs and indirect taxation) instead.

Officials involved in Phare and Tacis, the EU aid programmes for Central and Eastern European countries, expressed incredulity at the accusations.

“He was a very good and well-respected head of delegation, and it would really surprise me if anything untoward had happened,” commented one.