WRITTEN QUESTION E-1174/01 by Gabriele Stauner (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Statements by Commissioner Lamy.
Date: 2001-04-19
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Commissioner, access to EU information, duties of civil servants, fraud against the EU, illicit trade, operation of the Institutions, transport company

13.11.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 318 E/219

(2001/C 318 E/239)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1174/01

by Gabriele Stauner (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(19 April 2001)

Subject: Statements by Commissioner Lamy

At his hearing before Parliament in the summer of 1999 Pascal Lamy said that as Head of Cabinet to
Commission President Delors at the time he had not learnt of the FlØchard case until late 1993/early 1994.
His cabinet had had to take a moderating role, he said, in order to reach agreement between directorates-
general that were in dispute with one another.

Since then a memorandum has been discovered in a safe of the Commission(cid:146)s Directorate-General for
Agriculture that shows up the role of the Delors cabinet in this fraud affair in a very different light.
Accordingly to the note, the Delors cabinet intervened heavily, as long ago as March 1993 at the latest, on
behalf of the FlØchard company in the Commission(cid:146)s decision-making procedures. This happened although
the company had clearly submitted deliberately falsified documents,
in order to conceal the fact that
a heavily subsidised consignment of butter for the former Soviet Union had been fraudulently diverted to
Poland. After a meeting of
the Delors cabinet on 7 January 1994, whose minutes have allegedly
disappeared, the prescribed fine to the company of € 17,6 million was cut to € 3 million. This ensured the
survival of a company which, according to investigations by the Italian courts, is said to have gone on
being involved in fraudulent transactions with adulterated butter on a grand scale until mid-2000.

And in another case, Mr Lamy(cid:146)s statements at this hearing before Parliament appear also not to have been
complete and comprehensive. Mr Lamy was asked to list all the meetings at which he had met European
Commission officials, of whatever rank, during his time as a member of the board of the CrØdit Lyonnais,
and to name the date, place and purpose of each meeting.

In his reply Mr Lamy gave the impression that his self-imposed distancing from the Commission had lasted
until 1 May 1998, when he said there had been a meeting in Brussels.

1.

Can the Commission confirm that Mr Lamy in fact met Commission officials considerably earlier?

Can the Commission provide a full list of all meetings at which Mr Lamy met European Commission
2.
officials, of whatever rank, during his time as a member of the board of the CrØdit Lyonnais, and name the
date, place and purpose of each meeting?

Can the Commission provide copies of the minutes of these minutes, if necessary on a confidential

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(29 May 2001)

3.
basis?

No.

The records of the Commission confirm the statement made by Mr Lamy at his hearing before Parliament,
i.e. that during his time as a member of the executive board of CrØdit Lyonnais, Mr Lamy met with
Commission officials formally only once, on 1-3 May 1998 in Brussels. Purpose was to discuss a state aid
case concerning CrØdit Lyonnais.

As with internal documents relating to state aid cases in general,
confidential.

the minutes of this meeting are

(2001/C 318 E/240)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1176/01

by Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(3 April 2001)

Subject: Birth deficit

At the plenary sitting on Wednesday, 14 March 2001, the President of the Commission, Mr Romano
Prodi, referred to the demographic problem facing Europe as one of the ten areas in which it has been