Cresson not crestfallen

Madame Edith Cresson, former prime minister of France and member of the disgraced European Commission that was forced to resign en masse last March in the wake of a damning report on mismanagement and fraud, has declared that she wishes to clear her name. She has supported moves by the Belgian authorities to lift her immunity from prosecution. Investigators who are examining allegations of bribery, fraud and forgery at the commission are known to be looking closely at the role of Rene Berthelot, Mme Cresson’s dentist friend from her home town of Chatellrault. She employed him as a scientific adviser on Aids when she was Commissioner in charge of the Scientific Research and Education Directorate. A study by the independent committee of experts which wrote the fateful report called his appointment “a clear case of favouritism” and found his work – ten reports which later turned out to have been written after he had left his post at the commssion – “deficient in terms of quantity, quality and relevance.” The commission under Jacques Santer may well have survived had Mme Cresson agreed to resign but her obduracy left the members no choice but to stand down collectively. Mme Cresson currently receives an annual pension of UK£28,500 and was paid UK£61,000 on leaving office. The commission has asked M Berthelot to reimburse the UK£89,000 that he earned during his time there but he has yet to comply. Benoit Deje-meppe has asked that immunity be lifted for M Berthelot and six commission officials as well as Mme Cresson: all could now face trial. In a separate development, the beleagured ex-commissioner may also be required to explain how a research organisation, Schneider Industries Services Inernational (SISI), that she founded came to receive a UK£300,000 payment from a subsidiary of Elf Aquitane, the French oil concern that was used to make illegal funds transfers in support of Helmut Kohl’s CDU party in Germany.