Monti has to report back

Date: 03/04/1997

It was a case of citizens first, journalists second, when Simone Veil presented her report on the free movement of people in the Union.

Confident that the report had been handed out to the waiting media, she pointed reporters to her group's 80 recommendations for plugging the loopholes in the current arrangements.

But the empty-handed hacks just looked blank and although Veil reassured them that the report was being handed out, it was - in fact - not.

“What's the problem?” asked Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn, who was at the launch.

The problem was that a member of Internal Market Commissioner Mario Monti's cabinet had followed established protocol and decided not to give out the report because the European Parliament had not yet received it formally.

There was also the small matter of a rebellion by members of the Parliament's petitions committee, who felt that Veil was trespassing on their fiefdom.

An embarrassed Monti told the waiting reporters that it was a matter for the spokesman's service. After a ten-minute delay, copies of the report finally appeared.