www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/Times

December 7 1999

THE Italian Radical Party, in a surprising move led by Emma Bonino, the

former European Commissioner, called on Romano Prodi, the European

Commission's President, yesterday to resign over accusations of

irregularities in connection with the Italian high- speed railway project.

Marco Pannella, the veteran leader of the maverick libertarian party, urged

the former Prime Minister to quit "at high speed" after allegations of

corruption and negligence were levelled at Signor Prodi last week by

Ferdinando Imposimato, a respected former judge and former senator.

He claims that the Commissioner, in a previous incarnation as the guarantor

of the high-speed railway project and subsequently as the chairman of

Italy's IRI holding concern, effectively turned a blind eye to infiltration

of the huge, 140 billion lire (£46 billion)project by the vicious Neapolitan

version of the Mafia, the Camorra.

Signor Prodi should resign his Brussels post "well before the Italian

magistrates, and the Italian and European parliaments, proceed against him

officially for his serious responsibilities in Italian cases of very grave

public corruption with European ramifications", Signor Pannella said.

On Friday, Franco Ricardo Levi, a spokesman for Signor Prodi, denied any

wrong-doing or incorrect behaviour by Signor Prodi in relation to the

railway project. Signor Ricardo Levi said that, as guarantor of the rail

project, Signor Prodi had no operational or decision-making role. "He was

simply responsible for the scientific checks on the environmental impact of

the project, a post that was unpaid."

Nevertheless, Signor Pannella's statement was supported by the party's

European MPs and its slate for the Strasbourg legislature, which is led by

Signora Bonino, the feisty former European Commissioner for Fisheries and

Humanitarian Affairs, who still has considerable influence in Brussels.

The conservative "post-fascist" National Alliance echoed the Radicals' call

for resignation, also urging the centre-left Italian Government "to refer

officially in parliament on what it knows" about the questions that were

raised by Signor Imposimato.

Signor Imposimato says that he was condemned to death by the Camorra for his

investigation into the infiltration of the train project by firms controlled

by the crime gang, which in many cases were, in turn, subsidiaries of IRI.

A series of investigations by Italian magistrates against Signor Prodi for

alleged impropriety while he was IRI president, focusing on an alleged

conflict of interest with his previous activities as a private business

consultant, were shelved with no evidence found against him. However, Signor

Imposimato has denied suggestions that he has any ulterior motive in

accusing the Commission chief.

Signor Imposimato claims that, as Prime Minister, Signor Prodi mounted a

high-level cover-up against investigations into the train project and that

the former judge's repeated efforts to urge Signor Prodi to take action then

to eradicate the organised crime infiltration were rebuffed.

Signor Pannella said that his party's radio station, Radical Radio, which

has a long anti-establishment tradition and a wide audience, had covered the

presentation at the Rome Foreign Press Club on Friday of Signor Imposimato's

potentially explosive book, High Speed Corruption: A Voyage Inside Invisible

Government, which he wrote with a criminal lawyer and television journalist.

All other Italian media, not wishing to upset Signor Prodi, had ignored the

presentation, he said.

"Only The Times of London wrote about this book," Signor Pannella said. "It

was ignored by the duopoly of television controlled by the State and the

private Mediaset corporation."

In Brussels last night, Signor Prodi's spokesman at Breydel Palace, the

Commission headquarters, said it was "out of the question" that he step down

over the affair. "The accusations contained in the book are absolutely

senseless and groundless," Signor Ricardo Levi said.

But Signor Imposimato, the spokesman for the Italian Social Democrat Party

on justice issues, stuck to his guns, insisting that the Commission

President was "politically and morally censurable in connection to the Treni

Alta Velocitá [high-speed train] affair".

Brussels: Romano Prodi yesterday dismissed the charges as "baseless" and

shrugged off calls to resign (Martin Fletcher writes). "It's an entirely

baseless accusation," Franco Ricardo Levi, Signor Prodi's spokesman, said of

the claims by Ferdinando Imposimato. He added that Signor Prodi was

supervising a study to assess the rail project's environmental impact. He

had no decision-making powers and received no remuneration. Signor Ricardo

Levi refused to discuss Signor Imposimato's motives.