Commission’s first day spent fighting to protect members

THERE will be no honeymoon period for the new European Commission as they spent their first day in office fighting off allegations about one of their members.

The French Commissioner Jacques Barrot, convicted of embezzling state funds, had not informed his new boss about this before taking up his new post.

The new Transport Commissioner, in a letter to the European Parliament, explained he had got an automatic amnesty for the conviction that carried a suspended eight-month jail sentence.

Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso first learned about the conviction as his team got a two-thirds majority vote from the MEPs last week. Yesterday his spokesperson, Francoise Le Bail, said while Mr Barroso would have preferred to have known about the situation earlier, he had full confidence in the French Commissioner.

“His explanation in his letter is quite clear and explains that under French law the conviction no longer exists. M Barrot could have stood for election for Parliament and as an MEP.

“In the French system the amnesty allows a conviction to be completely erased,” she said.

She said Mr Barrot was prepared to come before the Parliament to answer any questions there might be about the situation.

Mr Barrot was one of a number of French politicians convicted of misusing state money to fund political parties including that of the French president Jacques Chirac. However since the incident occurred before the law was in place the legislation gave an automatic pardon to those getting less than a nine-month suspended jail sentence.

The 67-year-old, a close supporter of Mr Chirac, said his integrity in politics had never been questioned.

The European Parliament was set to reject Mr Barroso’s first Commission line-up more than three weeks ago and forced a reshuffle that included replacing two commissioners.

One of them, the Latvian Ingrida Udre, was suspected of being involved in a party funding scandal but had not been charged or convicted.

However the firm stand the European Parliament took then looked like fading yesterday as the Socialist group, the second largest in the Parliament, kicked to touch sending Mr Barrot’s letter of explanation for a legal opinion.

The largest group, the European People’s Party, said it voted overwhelmingly for the new Commission and was not going to change.

The Liberal group was split about the situation and its leader, Graham Watson issued a statement in his own name saying Mr Barrot should resign.