Given that MEPs spend much of their time working in Brussels and Strasbourg, they don't always make the headlines at home.

A FORMER French prime minister whose actions helped bring down the European Commission will be allowed keep her pension despite being found guilty of bending the rules.

The European Commission survived its most serious test yesterday when its president Romano Prodi refused to sack any of his commissioners over allegations of fraud.

European Commission president Romano Prodi faces a grilling from Euro-MPs tomorrow over the latest fraud scandal to plague the European Commission.