BELGIUM: Belgian prosecutors have charged former French prime minister Mrs Edith Cresson with fraud over allegations which led to the collapse of the scandal-hit European Commission four years ago.
Mrs Cresson, who was French prime minister from 1991-1992, has been accused of cronyism during her time as a member of the Brussels-based EU executive in the late 1990s.
A Belgian investigating magistrate, Jean-Claude Van Espen, "has decided to charge Mrs Cresson and a few of her staff" with indictments including forgery, said Brussels prosecutors' office spokesman Jos Colpin.
Mrs Cresson was informed last week by registered letter of the indictment, he said.
The action follows a lawsuit brought in January 1999 by Belgian MEP Nelly Maes, two months before the mass resignation in disgrace of the then commission led by Luxembourger Jacques Santer.
The Belgian judicial action comes after the EU's Commission said in January it wanted a response to the allegations from Mrs Cresson, who was commissioner for education and research from 1995-1999.
Mrs Cresson was specifically accused of organising the hiring by her department of Rene Berthelot, a personal friend and retired dentist, from 1996-1997. Berthelot was allegedly paid a salary amounting to some €150,000 for a fictitious job.
Mrs Cresson rebuffed the accusations in January. "I don't see very well what I am supposed to have done wrong," she told the French daily Le Figaro.