MEPs accuse Prodi of secret deal over fisheries sacking

Date: 23/05/02

By Martin Banks

THE row over the European Commission's planned fisheries reform took a dramatic new twist last night (15 May) after it was alleged a secret political deal was struck to serve a senior official's head 'on a plate'.

MEPs believe that fisheries director-general Steffen Smidt was sacked in return for Spain agreeing to drop its demand for the new European Food Safety Authority to be sited in Barcelona.

Smidt, the man at the centre of the furore, was the main architect of the reform proposals which Spain fears will badly hit its fishing industry. He was sacked at 24 hours' notice last month.

Last night's bombshell development emerged as MEPs suggested that Commission Vice-President Neil Kinnock and Fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler would have agreed to Smidt's dismissal only 'if they got something in return'.

Irish MEP Patricia McKenna, the Green Party's coordinator on the fisheries committee, told European Voice that speculation was rife that Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar and Commission President Romano Prodi had struck a political deal over the affair.

She said: 'The word is that Prodi told Aznar he would give him Smidt's head on a plate in return for Aznar agreeing to drop Spain's demand for siting the food agency in Barcelona.'

The end of Belgium's EU presidency last year was marred by bickering over where the agency should be located, with three cities vying for it: Helsinki, the initial favourite, Parma and Barcelona.

McKenna added: 'We've heard that Aznar agreed to support Italy's case, that Parma would get the agency, only if Smidt was dismissed.'

She will question Fischler on the alleged deal when he appears before the fisheries committee on Wednesday (22 May) to explain his role.

'We need to know if a deal was done, whether the issue of the food authority location came up in the conversation between Prodi and Aznar and in what context,' she said.

Other MEPs who spoke to this paper supported McKenna's version of the events.

If the allegation is proved, Finland will view it with 'utmost seriousness,' said a senior official in Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen's office.

Aulikka Hulmi, a counsellor in Lipponen's EU secretariat, said: 'I am not naïve and realise lobbying goes on behind the scenes. But such a deal is not the way of making policy and would be a cause of real concern.

'We remain very committed to having the agency in Helsinki.'

Lipponen is due to meet Prodi in Brussels at the very time that Fischler faces his grilling from the fisheries committee.

Meanwhile, Kinnock, who has ultimate responsibility for personnel changes, has been asked to appear before the budgetary control committee on Tuesday to answer questions about Smidt's sudden departure.

Both meetings with the commissioners will be held in private.

Fisheries committee chairman Struan Stevenson said: 'These are very serious allegations and we want to hear exactly what both have to say on the matter.'

Danish deputy Jens-Peter Bonde has asked EU Ombudsman Jacob Söderman launch an investigation into the fisheries affair. 'These are by far the gravest accusations I have heard in my 23 years as an MEP. We need to get all the facts about this case out in the open,' he said.

The Parliament's Socialist Group announced yesterday that it had ordered Spanish Fisheries Minister Miguel Arias Cañete to appear before the assembly next month.

Socialist leader Enrique Barón Crespo said MEPs wanted Cañete to 'explain or correct' comments he made on television that he had given instructions to 'his commissioners' to block the reforms - in violation of the EU treaties guaranteeing the independence of the Commission.

The Spanish MEP added: 'It must be made absolutely clear that there is full respect for the institutional balance which characterises the EU. If there is no clarification, we would consider the Spanish government to be in breach of the Treaty.'

Fischler maintained this week that he was neither under pressure from Spain nor prepared to change 'anything of substance' in his reforms. Any link between Smidt's sacking, Aznar's phone conversation with Prodi and the delay in approving the reform package was purely 'coincidental', he said.

However, Fischler crucially failed to respond to a question by Scottish MEP Ian Hudghton, a fisheries committee member, who asked why Smidt was given only 24 hours' notice of departure, when the other 20 departmental heads involved in the same shake-up had known for some time.

That question is likely to be pursued with even more vigour on Wednesday.

The Spanish prime minister has, meanwhile, reacted angrily to allegations that he asked Prodi to halt the reform programme and dump Smidt during their telephone conversation on 21 April.

The call was not recorded, according to both the Commission and Madrid.

But this assertion was questioned by Danish MEP Torben Lund, who called for any transcript of the conversation to be made public.

He said: 'I would be very surprised if a conversation between two such high-ranking people was not recorded. If such calls are not taped they most certainly should be so that the contents can be verified, particularly in cases like this.'

What is not in dispute is that Smidt was told to clear his desk the day after Aznar's call to Prodi and that Fischler's reform proposals were removed from the Commission's agenda on 24 April.

Aznar's spokesman, Fernando Garzia Casas, maintains that the prime minister had nothing to do with either event.

'I want to stress that he has exerted no inappropriate pressure whatsoever on Prodi or the Commission.

'Both the prime minister and the Spanish government are not happy with certain aspects of the reform proposals, but that is as far as it goes.'

Casas said the reform plans had been discussed only by lower-level officials.

He was also adamant that Commission Vice-President Loyola de Palacio was not working hand-in-hand with Madrid when she sent a letter to Fischler on 16 April, urging him to rethink his reform proposals.

'It would, of course, be wrong if this were the case but there is absolutely no evidence of her doing so [acting under instructions],' he added.

• The Commission has been urged to publish its reform programme 'without delay' by Seas At Risk, an NGO representing European environmental and fisheries organisations.

In a letter sent to Prodi and Fischler, the group's fisheries policy officer, Monica Verbeek, writes: 'The proposals were ready for publication on 17 April and the contents are widely known. Despite this, publication has been delayed twice within two weeks due to political pressure applied behind closed doors.

'This has made a mockery of Commission claims of transparency and is profoundly undemocratic.'

The row over the European Commission's planned fisheries reform took a dramatic new twist on 15 May 2002, after it was alleged that a secret political deal was struck to serve a senior official's head 'on a plate'. MEPs believe that fisheries director-general Steffen Smidt was sacked in return for Spain agreeing to drop its demand for the new European Food Safety Authority to be sited in Barcelona.