EUROSTAT CASE: POLITICAL TENSION ON THE EVE OF ROMANO PRODI'S HEARING.

The Budgetary Control Committee, which will meet in the evening of September 22 on the fringes of the plenary session, is likely to reiterate its disquiet. The Conference of Presidents has not only confirmed its refusal to allow a public debate with Romano Prodi, it has also restricted the number of representatives of the parliamentary Committee permitted to attend the hearing to three, its President Diemut Theato (EPP, Germany) and its two rapporteurs, Paulo Casaca (PES, Portugal) and Herbert Bosch (PES, Austria). Conditions for the transfer of two long awaited reports from the Task Force and the Internal Audit Service are also fuelling dissatisfaction within the Budgetary Control Committee. The European Commission itself will only get a look at the reports at its weekly meeting on September 23 in Strasbourg, whilst the complete reports will only be available for reading not copying to members of the Budgetary Control Committee and the Presidents of political groups from 21h on September 24. A summary should however be made available to MEPs. The Committee of Member States Permanent Representatives' to the EU (COREPER) will meanwhile be informed of the content of the two reports by the Commission's Secretary-General David O'Sullivan at its meeting on September 24.

In this context, it is worth noting that expectations regarding this hearing have been considerably lowered. The President of the ELDR group, Graham Watson, believes the hearing should be just one step in attempts to prove the possible political responsibility of Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pedro Solbes, the Commissioner responsible for Eurostat. More cautious still, EPP group President Hans-Gert Pottering believes...