McCreevy gets extra competition responsibilities

Ann Cahill, Europe Correspondent

The former Finance Minister has the tough internal market portfolio but now takes partial responsibility for anti-competition cases in the Union.

In future he will handle all cases that cannot be dealt with by the Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, because of a conflict of interest caused by the extensive business interests she had before joining the Commission.

Commission President Manuel Barroso originally said he would deal with these cases, but over the past few weeks he has been accused of having a conflict of interest in banking and shipping areas.

Yesterday the Commission announced that in future these would be handled by Mr McCreevy.

A commission source said, “This is very good for his profile. He is emerging as one of the heavy hitters of this commission.”

The investigations he will take over involve claims of excessive roaming charges enforced by Vodafone, O2, and Deutsche Telekom; a review of a law that exempts shipping groups from cartel laws and an antitrust investigation into the practices of cross-channel ferry operators between Britain and France.

The Dutch Commissioner, Ms Kroes, served on the boards of various companies including O2, the defence group Thales, and the shipping group, Royal P&O Nedlloyd.

These cases were being handled by Mr Barroso but last month he was accused of conflict of interest when it emerged he had holidayed on a yacht owned by a Greek shipping owner, who he said was a friend from University days.

The European Parliament heard a motion of censure against him, signed by the two Sinn Féin MEPs, and is to vote on this next week.

Mr McCreevy, according to his register of interests for the past ten years, has not been a board member of any company and his only interest is a pension from his former accountancy partnership and from some small insurance policies.