EPP bids to block Commission expenses

Date: 26/09/02

By David Cronin

MEMBERS of the European Parliament's two biggest political groups have clashed over the question of whether reforms aimed at stamping out fraud in the European Commission are proving effective.

The centre-right European People's Party (EPP) wants the assembly to block the funding of commissioners' travel expenses in 2003. It hopes this will force the executive into providing a comprehensive explanation of the issues behind the ongoing saga involving sacked accounting officer Marta Andreasen.

However, Socialist group leader Enrique Barón Crespo has accused the EPP of launching an 'undercover censure motion' against the Commission. Other PES members argue that Neil Kinnock, the reform commissioner and former leader of the UK's Labour Party, had no option other than to dismiss Andreasen for airing her grievances outside the Commission.

Barón opposes the EPP's efforts to persuade the budget control committee to invite Andreasen to address it. The committee, also known by its French acronym Cocobu, has been asked to examine a petition from Andreasen against dismissal after alerting other institutions to her fear that the Commission's bookkeeping system is vulnerable to fraud.

Barón said: 'It is unacceptable for an official, who has been suspended and faces disciplinary hearings, to come before a committee of this house. Parliament would be in breach of the rule of law if it agreed to make such an invitation as this matter is sub judice.'

British Conservative deputy James Elles dismissed the suggestion that his colleagues are trying to secure a vote of no confidence by secretive means.

'We don't have undercover agents [in the EPP],' he said.

'I don't think the Socialists want to rattle the cage of their own commissioner [Kinnock]. But we want to get a clear answer from the Commission to the questions asked by Mrs Andreasen.'

Elles said he wanted to know 'why Andreasen was appointed in the first place'. The Commission initially claimed it did not know she had been suspended in her previous job at the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, prompting questions as to why the EU's executive did not seek a written reference.

The EPP proposal is due to be put to a vote by the entire Parliament next month. Insiders say it is highly improbable it will secure majority support, given that most members of the other large political groups, the PES and ELDR, seem opposed to it.

Meanwhile, the Commission has rebutted suggestions by another British Conservative, Chris Heaton-Harris, that it is turning a blind eye to criminal activities by some officials.

The MEP told the assembly on Monday that he had seen an internal report by the Commission's investigation and disciplinary office, giving details of

'50 actions taken against individuals found to be guilty of a total of 48 infringements'.

'Despite reported cases documented in this report of rape, fraud, paedophile pornography, misuse of funds, harassment, theft, forgery, striking and wounding, depraved behaviour, aggression, corruption and conflict of interest, only one individual has been dismissed in the last five years,' he said.

The Commission branded his allegations as 'wrong and misleading'.

In a statement, it said 49 (not 50) investigations were undertaken within the Commission in 1998-2002 for disciplinary offences. Nine of these resulted in dismissal and eight were concluded 'due to lack of sufficient evidence or grave illness of the individual concerned'.

'The 32 remaining cases attracted financial and/or career punishments which were proportionate to the offences committed,' the statement added.

Members of the European Parliament's two biggest political groups have clashed over the question of whether reforms aimed at stamping out fraud in the European Commission are proving effective.