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MEPs accuse commission of ’looting’ cover-up
Corrupt EU bureaucrats? Lack of accountability? Whatever next?!Euro MPs accused the European Commission yesterday of trying to cover up a "vast enterprise of looting" by top officials in Luxembourg. Three European commissioners, including the vice-president, Neil Kinnock, were hauled up by the European Parliament's budget control committee, accused of ignoring warnings dating back to the 1990s of widespread corruption in Eurostat, the European Union's data office. Chris Heaton-Harris, a Tory MEP, said millions of pounds of public money had vanished into the hands of a clique of officals serving as directors of related companies. "I'm convinced this has been a huge cover-up and the commission never had any intention of solving any of these problems until forced to by allegations in the press," he said. Angry German MEPs accused the commission of disguising the extent of the scandal before the European Parliament signed off the EU accounts in March. Pedro Solbes, the European economics commissioner, admitted for the first time yesterday that the suspected embezzlement of public funds was "very serious" and had been allowed to fester for too long. "New developments showed that the problems were far more significant than we had known. The commission is deeply concerned," he told the inquiry. Just weeks earlier he assured MEPs that there was no problem with the way Eurostat awarded contracts. But that was before the leak of a document from the EU's anti-fraud office describing the Eurostat scam as a "vast enterprise of looting". The allegations centre on a network of sub-contractors used by the agency, which has a £102m budget and is licensed to make money selling data to the private sector. Two of Eurostat's top officials, including Yves Franchet, the French director-general for the past 16 years, are being investigated for alleged use of a private bank account in Luxembourg to cream off £650,000 of public money. Both deny any wrongdoing. The anti-fraud authorities in Brussels, Paris, and Luxembourg are now examining a network of sub-contractors suspected of submitting false invoices and possible "kick-backs" to Eurostat officials. Posted by: Bulldog 2003-06-18 |
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