QUESTIONS FOR PRODI

Editorial of the Daily Telegraph

Tuesday, May 4, 1999

Six weeks ago, the European Commission was brought down by the worst scandal in its history. An investigation by a special committee had found it guilty of awesome malpractice: contracts had been awarded in return for bribes, payments were being made to non-existent claimants, officials were maintaining their friends and families at public expense. So damning were the findings that the European Parliament, normally a defender of Europe right or wrong, was eventually shamed into dismissing the Commission en masse.

In the frantic days that followed, Europe's leaders scrabbled to find a new commission president capable of restoring confidence. Within hours, a consensus had emerged around the former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi. Having sorted out the financial mess that he had inherited in Rome, Mr Prodi was deemed the ideal man to do the same in Brussels. Tony Blair describes him as " areal reformer, a high-quality person". And Mr Prodi clearly has qualities. True, he is an extreme federalist who believes that the EU's problems should be solved by giving it yet more power and money; but it is difficult to imagine the EU appointing a candidate who did not hold these views. In his favour, Mr Prodi is personable, Anglophile and realistic about the need for market reforms.

But, in their understandable haste to reach a decision, Europe's leaders did not stop to consider Mr Prodi's financial past. This was an oversight which they may have cause to rue. For, as Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports on page four, Mr Prodi has been the subject of two criminal investigations, both revolving around allegations of cronyism, abuse of office and conflicts of interest - more or less the crimes that brought down the last commission.

It is important to stress that Mr Prodi has not been found guilty of breaking the law. Yet, as we reveal today, the cases leave several unanswered questions that the Italian judiciary, mindful perhaps of Mr Prodi's position, has been reluctant to probe. When Mr Prodi was simply an italian politician, this was none of our business; but now that he aspires to high European Office, it is.

Tomorrow, the European Parliament will be asked to endorse Mr Prodi as president-elect. MEPs should use this opportunity to make Mr prodi's appointment conditional on a full disclosure of his business past. In particular, the parliament should appoint a committee to take evidence from the key figures involved in the Cirio-Bertolli-De Rica case, including Giuseppa Geremia, the prosecutor, and Renato Castaldo, the investigator; it should also insist on the publication of Mr Prodi's own cross-examination under oath and other relevant documents. The Italian judiciaryis entitled to withhold these papers; but, if he has nothing to hide, Mr Prodi should be prepared to ask his own lawyers to make them public. His defence when questioned about the Bertolli case - that, as part of the board, he was subject to collective responsibility - is uncomfortably reminiscent of the old commission, as is his unwillingness to disclose any more than the letter of the law demands. These are not the standards we expect from a man br

ought in to tackle corruption.