Guilty ex-prime minister keeps €47,000 pension

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.

Edith Cresson, who is now 71, will continue to receive her €47,000-a-year pension after spending four years from 1995 as Commissioner for Science, Research and Development.

She insisted the commission employ a 66-year-old dentist friend from her home town in France even though there was no official job for him and he was too old to be employed.

When news of the scandal leaked out in 1999 it added to charges of financial mismanagement against the Santer Commission.

The European Parliament demanded and eventually got their resignation — the first time such a thing happened in EU politics Four months ago the European Court ruled that Ms Cresson should lose half her pension for the wrong doing.

But yesterday’s final ruling said that the taint of guilt was punishment enough and allowed her to keep her money.

Ms Cresson had wanted to appoint her friend, René Berthelot as her personal advisor in her cabinet. But he was too old to be appointed to her cabinet and it was already fully staffed.

Instead, she bent the rules to have him employed as a visiting scientist.

His job was to advise her on HIV/AIDS even thought he had no expertise in this. He produced a 24-page report and was paid a total of €150,000.

He resigned on medical grounds at the end of 1997 and died in 2000.

The Belgian courts investigating the matter found there were no grounds for taking a criminal case against her.

The decision not to penalise Mrs Cresson was condemned as “incomprehensible” by Dutch liberal MEP Jan Mulder.

Independent Danish MEP Jens-Peter Bonde said: “The verdict shows that personal gain is exempt from punishment if a person is important enough”.