Pasty fails in effort to end 14-year fund saga

Date: 05/10/1995

By Rory Watson

ATTEMPTS by a French Gaullist MEP to close the books on over 90,000 ecu of European parliamentary funds which were unaccounted for 14 years ago have failed.

Jean-Claude Pasty surprised colleagues on the Parliament's budgetary control committee when he suggested in his report on how the institution had handled its 1993 finances that it should end the controversy of the missing funds.

At stake were accounting irregularities involving former parliamentary official Henri de Compte. These included disputed checks worth 91,263 ecu, a sum which the European Court of Auditors established had been a deficit in the institution's accounts since November 1981. The deficit has remained on its books ever since.

Pasty's colleagues argued that he was trying to go against facts established not just by the Court of Auditors, but also by the Court of First Instance, the Court of Justice, an outside accounting firm, several parliamentary presidents and a disciplinary board.

Pasty insisted he had suggested the issue be closed as he believed the whole affair had not been properly handled by the Parliament. He also felt that it was an issue which should be dealt with internally.

If the full Parliament backs those MEPs who successfully opposed Pasty, it will then wait for a ruling from the Luxembourg Commercial Court in its bid to be reimbursed the missing funds by the insurance company La Royale Belge.