The European Commission found itself bogged down in a fresh scandal over alleged fraud and mismanagement on Tuesday with its critics claiming that the EU executive has learned nothing from its sleaze-soaked past.
In a twist that delighted British Euroskeptics, a powerful panel of MEPs cross-examined Neil Kinnock, the commission vice-president, and two of his fellow commissioners about the affair.
The commission, MEPs claimed, had done too little too late about a burgeoning scandal involving the alleged "looting" of a million euros, despite the fact that it embarked upon a radical reform program in 1999 after the fraud-induced demise of the last commission.
Since Kinnock is in charge of reforming the commission, and was given the job of improving the way in which the commission handles such allegations, he was one of those in the line of fire yesterday.
He and his colleagues flatly denied that the commission had handled the matter incompetently and said that the matter was still being investigated.
They did concede, however, that there appeared to be problems "far more significant" than previously thought.
The allegations are serious. EU officials, it is claimed, illegally transferred 1 million euros into unofficial bank accounts. The case is being investigated by authorities in France and Luxembourg as well as by Olaf, the EU's anti-fraud office.
At the center of the matrix lies Eurostat, the commission's Luxembourg-based statistical arm.
Although it sounds obscure, the Eurostat is the body which provides the figures that the commission uses to inform its decision-making and therefore has considerable influence.
Its two most senior figures -- Yves Franchet and Daniel Byk -- are the two main suspects in the affair. Both deny wrongdoing and were moved from their posts at their own request last month.
MEPs said yesterday that the commission had known about the problems at Eurostat in 1999 but had failed to act.
It was also suggested in some quarters that Romano Prodi, the commission president, knew about the allegations and did not act, an allegation which drew a furious denial from his spokesman.
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