Italy set to lift block on fraud-buster

Date: 13/12/01

By David Cronin

Diplomats expect that Silvio Berlusconi's government will shortly cave into demands to lift its objections to one of Italy's top magistrates taking a key post in the EU's anti-fraud office, OLAF.

Rome's efforts to block Alberto Perduca's appointment as director of investigations at the fledgling service appear to have come to nought after the Council of Magistrates (CSM), which governs the Italian judiciary, rejected the government's request not to authorise his move to the post.

The government has also been over-ruled in its bid to prevent two other officials from joining Brussels-based OLAF.

Although all three postings were authorised by the previous centre-left government, Berlusconi has attempted to thwart them since winning the general election in May. In a submission to the CSM, he contended the jobs should go to police officers instead of members of the judiciary.

According to Italian officials, the CSM decision means that Berlusconi has exhausted all legal avenues open to him. One said that it is likely the prime minister will have to accept the appointments in the next few weeks: "The ball is now in the government's court and something new should happen before the end of the year."

Claims by Justice Minister Roberto Castelli that the nominations should be considered as 'political' had been hotly disputed both in Brussels and by opposition parties in Rome.

Perduca, one of 16 candidates for the job, was selected by OLAF's director-general Franz-Herman Brüner last April after the vacancy was notified to EU ambassadors of all 15 member states, with a request that they distribute it within their national administrations.

The other two magistrates, who have been awarded 'temporary agent' contacts, took part in a recruitment procedure, also publicised via diplomatic channels and on OLAF's website.

There has been considerable disquiet in Brussels and Rome over the protracted row. "What started out as a domestic Italian matter is really messing things up for us," explained an OLAF insider.

Another official said: "Italy has been in the front line against fraud. At an operational level we have excellent relations with it, so we very much regret its lack of cooperation on this matter."

Austrian Socialist MEP Herbert Bösch, author of a recent parliamentary report on fighting fraud, has called on Commission head Romano Prodi and budget chief Michaele Schreyer to personally intervene with Rome, with a view to ending the dispute. "This is not only an Italian national question," he said. "It is something that concerns the European taxpayer."

But Schreyer's spokesman Luc Verón said the Union's executive was taking no role in the affair: "It would be improper for the Commission to interfere in OLAF's appointments."

Diplomats expect that Silvio Berlusconi's government will shortly cave in to demands to lift its objections to one of Italy's top magistrates taking a key post in the EU's anti-fraud office, OLAF.