EUROSTAT: PRODI CALLED TO APPEAR BEFORE BUDGETARY CONTROL COMMITTEE.

• Position: Romano Prodi

The Budgetary Control Committee's extraordinary meeting was initially intended to permit a series of hearings of senior officials, notably Peter Zangl, Director-General of DG InfSo and Head of the Task Force set up by the Commission to assist OLAF in its inquiries (see European Report 2792 for further details), Michel Vanden Abeele, the new Eurostat Director-General, Jules Muis, Director-General of the Internal Audit Service (IAS), and OLAF Director-General Franz Hermann Bruner. Finally, the very long session was above all an opportunity to hear Neil Kinnock, the Commissioner responsible for Personnel and Administration, and Pedro Solbes, already questioned on this case on June 17 (see European Report 2786 for further details), who took the initiative in agreement with Romano Prodi of appearing again before the Parliamentary Committee. The name of the Commission President was mentioned from the outset by Freddy Blak (EUL-NGL, Denmark) who demanded that he appear before the Committee. This call was taken up by Paulo Casaca (PES, Portugal), rapporteur on the discharge procedure for 2001 (see European Report 2766, 2761 and 2753 for further details) which was already dominated in part by another Eurostat case, who expressed his dissatisfaction at having had to recommend discharge to his colleagues without being aware that a second case was brewing. "Did we vote to approve discharge for individuals who knew noting about anything?" wondered Herbert Bosch (PES, Austria). Committee Chair Diemut Theato signalled her intention to invite Mr Prodi to attend the Budgetary Control Committee's meeting on September 8-9. A Commission spokesman indicated on July 17 that Mr Prodi will take a decision at the appropriate time. By contrast, the notion of a parliamentary Committee of Inquiry, demanded notably by the EUL group, was dismissed. Gabriele Stauner (EPP-E, Germany) insisted responsibility for addressing the case lies with the Budgetary Control Committee alone.

The hearing generally consolidated the Commission's principal line of defence, namely that it had no knowledge of this case before the end of April - and therefore the vote on discharge procedure -, as Secretary-General David O'Sullivan, himself informed by OLAF, had indicated at a previous hearing (see European Report 2789 for further details). Franz-Hermann Bruner confirmed that when he took up the case with Mr O'Sullivan, he had not only provided very succinct information but had also expressly...