EU: "Liberation" reveals conflicts of interest and influence peddling at the top

The headquarters of the European Commission in Brussels.

REUTERS - Francois Lenoir

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Two surveys published by the French daily 

come again this week to kick in the anthill of European institutions.

On November 26, a first investigation revealed fraud at the European Court of Auditors.

This Wednesday, December 1, a second publication in the daily attacks European Commissioners and judges of the Court of Justice of the EU. 

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With our correspondent in Brussels,

The

revolve mainly around Karel Pinxten, Belgian politician of 69 years sentenced in September to the forfeiture of two-thirds of his retirement pension by the Court of Justice (CJEU).

He chaired one of the chambers of the Court of Auditors (CCE) and he was accused by the Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) of having embezzled nearly half a million euros there.

Three institutions are in the crosshairs, namely OLAF, but also the Court of Justice and the Commission.

It is more precisely a question of influence peddling and conflicts of interest, no longer of fraud, contrary to the revelations of November 26 on the Court of Auditors.

Encounters never marked in the registers

All the officials pointed out here are first and foremost members of the EPP, the conservatives of the European People's Party. It deals with the Austrian European Commissioner and the previous Finnish Commissioner, an Austrian auditor, the Belgian President of the Court of Justice, a Dutch judge and the Finnish director of OLAF. In short, a group of people whose personal relationships are detailed. For example, according to

in dinners and hunts, among themselves and sometimes with business leaders. Meetings that have never been pointed out in the transparency registers.

The correspondent of

in Brussels at the origin of these revelations,

, is not at his first attempt.

His investigations were already at the origin of the fall of the Santer commission following revelations about Commissioner Édith Cresson in 1998 or more recently the removal of Martin Selmayr, the former right-hand man of Jean-Claude Juncker.

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