EU Executive Commission Resigns By ROBERT WIELAARD .c The Associated Press BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The chief executive of the European Union and 19 other senior officials abruptly resigned early Tuesday, after an investigative panel alleged cronyism and financial irregularities in their ranks. It marked the first time in the group's 42-year history that the European Commission, which runs the day-to-day affairs of the powerful trading block, had stepped down under fire. The action would be roughly equivalent to the entire U.S. Cabinet resigning. Franz Fischler, EU Agriculture Commissioner, said the report, issued Monday, had created a climate in which the EU executive could not remain in office. ``All the commissioners have resigned. We will prepare a statement to explain the reasons for our resignation,'' Fischler told reporters after an emergency session of the European Commission. ``It is better than to continue in such uncertainty'' The report said fraud and corruption pass ``unnoticed'' at the top of the institution that represents the EU in international trade negotiations as well as drafts laws and enforces them. Shortly afterwards, European Commission President Jacques Santer confirmed his resignation along with the 19 others. He planned to meet Tuesday with Jose- Maria Gil Robles, the president of the 626-member European Parliament, which instigated the fraud inquiry in January. The European Commissioners were expected to stay in office in a caretaker capacity. There was no word on when a new commision can be sworn in. The fraud report stemmed from testimony last December in the European Parliament by a Dutch EU auditor who complained about the failure of the commission to eradicate fraud. Monday's 140-page report by five independent experts concluded that several commissioners exercised lax control over programs, put friends and relatives on their payroll and pleaded ignorance when asked why they did not act sooner to stop problems. The commissioners have denied any wrongdoing, some saying they were unaware of sloppiness and fraud on their watch. The experts dismissed that defense. ``It is becoming difficult to find anyone who has even the slightest sense of responsibility,'' the report concluded. The conclusions led key political factions in the European Parliament to call for the entire EU executive to resign or face dismissal. A few hours later, they did. The report could not have come at a worse time for the EU. Leaders of the 15 EU nations meet next week in Berlin to finalize 18 months of tortuous talks about overhauling EU finances. A crisis of confidence at the EU head office is bound to distract them. Pauline Green, leader of the socialist group that is the largest in the European Parliament, spoke of a ``collective responsibility for mismanagement'' at the EU head office. Wilfried Martens, leader of the Christian Democrats, said EU Commissioners ``have lost control of management.'' The fraud report was most critical of Research Commissioner Edith Cresson, a former French prime minister who ``failed to act in response to known, serious and continuing irregularities over several years'' in educational and other programs for which she was responsible. The experts said when she was informed of fraud and waste by an outside contractor that squandered $160 million meant for a youth training program, she failed to stop it. She also was criticized for getting a short-term EU research job for a friend in 1995 who was later judged to be unqualified. He was paid for 10 months but was allegedly sick for nine. The report condemned others for cronyism, too. Regional Development Commissioner Monika Wulf-Mathies of Germany, and Portugal's Joao de Deus Pinheiro, the commissioner for relations with developing nations, put friends and relatives on the EU payroll. It cited Development Commissioner Manuel Marin, a Spaniard, for lax control over aid for Mediterranean nations, irregularities in hiring and doing too little, too late to stop fraud in the EU's humanitarian aid budget in the early 1990s. The report said there was no evidence any commissioner ``was directly and personally involved'' in fraud or had personally enriched themselves. It found no irregularities in Santer's office. But it did express dismay that the Luxembourger did not act sooner on allegations of fraud in contracts for EU buildings in Brussels dating back to 1993. Santer's commission was to end its five-year term on Dec. 31, 1999. European Commissioners are political appointees earning $17,280 a month and up. They are unelected and virtually unaccountable.
