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(2004/C 65 E/115)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1919/03

by Herbert Bösch (PSE) to the Commission

(12 June 2003)

Subject:   Hearings of officials involved in the Eurostat affair

On 19 March 2003, the Director-General of OLAF informed the French judicial authorities in writing of the possible implication of senior Eurostat officials in fraud.

In a statement to Eurostat of 19 May 2003 (IP/03/709), the Commission made it clear that the officials mentioned in the OLAF dossier had not been heard by OLAF regarding the unresolved accusations against them.

Can the Commission state how this is to be reconciled with Article 4 of the Commission Decision of 2 June 2000 on the terms and conditions for internal investigations in relation to the prevention of fraud, corruption and other illegal activities, which requires such hearings to take place before conclusions are drawn by OLAF in which officials concerned are referred to by name?

According to Article 4 of the above-mentioned Decision, the hearing may only be deferred in cases necessitating the maintenance of absolute secrecy for the purposes of the investigation and requiring the use of investigative procedures falling within the remit of a national judicial authority, in agreement with the President of the Commission or its Secretary-General respectively.

Can the Commission state when, and by whom, the decision was made to defer the hearing involving the officials concerned, and how this decision was justified?

Can the Commission state when, by whom, and in what form the Secretary-General of the Commission was informed that OLAF had called in the Paris judiciary?

Can the Commission state when, by whom, and in what form the President of the Commission was informed?

Can the Commission further state when, by whom, and in what form the Vice-President responsible for disciplinary matters, the anti-fraud Commissioner, and the Commissioner responsible for Eurostat were informed?

Answer given by Mrs Schreyer on behalf of the Commission

(4 September 2003)

Those questions were already discussed during the Budgetary Control Committee (Cocobu) meeting on 17 June 2003, but the Commission nevertheless wishes to give a precise answer to all the questions raised by the Honourable Member.

In accordance with Article 4, first paragraph of Commission Decision 1999/396/EC, ECSC, Euratom of 2 June 1999 concerning the terms and conditions for internal investigations in relation to the prevention of fraud, corruption and any illegal activity detrimental to the Communities' interests (1), conclusions referring by name to a Member, official or servant of the Commission may not be drawn once the investigation has been completed without the interested party's having been given the opportunity to express his views on all the facts which concern him. To date, the Commission understands that the OLAF investigation has not yet been completed. Article 4 of the Commission Decision of 2 June 1999 does not require officials to be heard in such circumstances as when the elements were sent to the Paris Prosecutor. The Commission has been informed by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) on 12 May 2003 that what was sent was related only to the external part of the enquiry.

OLAF first informed the Commission (Secretary General) about the existence of an enquiry on the Datashops on the 3 April 2003 without giving any details on the substance of its findings. OLAF specified that officials might be involved, without imparting their names, that information on the enquiry should be withheld from the interested parties in order to maintain absolute secrecy to protect the enquiry and that the dossier had been brought before the public prosecutor in Paris. Any decision to defer the hearing involving the officials concerned was therefore taken by OLAF under the powers granted to the Office by the Regulation.

On 22 April 2003, OLAF asked the Legal Service to file a claim against X with the Prosecutor's Office in Paris with the objective to obtain redress for the full amount of the financial loss. OLAF sent a copy of this communication to the Secretary General on 8 May 2003.

On 29 April 2003, the Secretary general informed, in confidence, the Head of the President's cabinet about the elements known to him at the time.

On 14 May 2003, the Secretary General informed the Heads of Cabinet of Messrs Prodi, Kinnock, Solbes and of Mrs Schreyer, as well as the head of the Legal Service, as OLAF had stated on 12 May 2003 that the Secretary General could now use the information supplied to him. The Heads of Cabinet informed their Commissioners on the same day.

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(1)OJ L 149, 16.6.1999.

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