Santer sets out reforms before no confidence vote

The European Commission President, Mr Jacques Santer, has moved to head off a motion of no confidence in the European Parliament by setting out reforms which, he said, would rebuild the "severely tested" trust between the parliament and the Commission.

The reforms include codes of conduct covering commissioners, their staff, and Commission officials, curbs on patronage in the appointment of senior officials, new rules on external staff and a new "independent" committee of inquiry involving MEPs and member-states into the fight against fraud.

He promised to report on progress to the parliamentary groups' leaders and to set up a "committee of wise men" to look at the problems of EU spending.

Speaking to MEPs here at the opening of the debate on several motions of no confidence in the Commission over its handling of fraud cases, Mr Santer defended its record on the single currency and opening accession negotiations with six countries.

He acknowledged that tackling fraud "had been neglected in the past" but claimed the near quadrupling of the numbers of Commission fraud investigators showed his determination to rectify this.

The concessions, seen by MEPs as a result of their pressure, go some way to meeting the demands of the largest group, the Socialists, and are likely to secure sufficient votes to defeat the no confidence vote on Thursday.

The President's appeal was reinforced by the call from the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, for restraint.

The leader of the Socialist group, the Parliament's largest, Ms Pauline Green, opened the debate by warning that MEPs must decide if the Commission could do its work. Proposing the motion of censure, she said that although her group was putting the motion it would oppose it as there was no other procedural means to express confidence. The Commission had gone some way to meet the demands of the Parliament.

However, she criticised the Commission for surrounding itself with "an ambience of secrecy, nepotism and corruption". She also criticised the Liberals for naming two Commissioners in their motion "against whom no case had been proven".

The leader of the European Liberals, Mr Pat Cox MEP, told the Parliament: "The rot will not be stopped if commissioners can hide behind the principle of collective responsibility". He said the principle of personal responsibility was a strength and not a weakness of democracy. "Sometimes if everyone is responsible, no one is responsible."

He argued that even if the Parliament did not have the right to sack individual commissioners, it could send the two, Ms Edith Cresson and Mr Manuel Marin, a strong message that they should consider their positions.

A Fine Gael MEP, Mr Joe McCartin, called on the Socialists to withdraw their motion, warning that it was damaging the EU institutions. The Commission was not a corrupt body but was guilty in some areas of failure to control spending.

The Fianna Fail group was represented by Mr Jean-Claude Pasty, of Union for Europe, who expressed concern at the failure of the Commission to meet the concerns of Parliament. However, the group is likely to back the Commission as it voted in favour of the discharge of the 1996 budget in December.