EU Commissioners Under Fire


Couldn't resist posting on this one at Fistful , comments welcome:

Romano Prodi, European Commission president, will on Thursday attempt to fight off calls for resignations over the Eurostat affair amid new evidence that financial irregularities continued long after he took office in 2000.


Three reports into the financial scandal released on Wednesday night reveal a saga of fake contracts, secret slush funds and huge waste which went unchecked in the Commission for many years. They tell how millions of euros disappeared into the secret accounts, ostensibly to fund additional statistical research. Large sums simply vanished while some money was used to fund staff perks. Mr Prodi will on Thursday face a grilling by members of the European parliament, many of whom believe he and his team failed to get a grip on the situation soon enough. Members of the 20-strong Commission claim the first they knew about the extent of the problems at the EU statistics arm was in May this year when they read about it in newspapers, including the Financial Times.
Source: Financial Times