EU: A European Parliament committee investigating allegations of corruption at Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, has heard that financial irregularities continued into 2002.
The Commission has maintained that the irregular accounting practices, which involved secret accounts and false invoices, ended when Mr Romano Prodi became Commission President in 1999. The budgetary control committee received a report from the Commission's internal audit service, which examined 400 contracts worth more than €400 million. The auditors concluded that some work was given to favoured companies without tender and that funds were siphoned off into secret accounts.
The auditors complained that they were unable to examine a number of suspicious contracts. They suggested that some irregularities at Eurostat were also found elsewhere in the Commission. In September, the European Parliament drew back from calling for Mr Pedro Solbes, the Commissioner responsible for Eurostat, to resign over the scandal, which has led to the sacking of Eurostat's boss, Mr Yves Franchet. The budgetary control committee said they would not act until they saw the full report by the internal auditors. Although some MEPs expressed outrage at yesterday's findings, there appears to be little appetite within the European parliament for a fresh confrontation with the Commission.
Next year sees elections for the Parliament and many MEPs are fearful that a corruption scandal could damage their own standing among citizens.