BELGIUM:Development commissioner Louis Michel will face a legal inquiry initiated by MEPs over his decision to go on unpaid leave to fight in Belgium's general election.
The European Parliament's development committee confirmed yesterday it had asked its legal service to investigate whether Mr Michel was breaking existing EU rules or its code of conduct. MEPs also strongly criticised the Belgian commissioner's decision not to attend the committee to explain his actions until next month and the timing of his absence, which coincides with several important meetings on development issues.
"His action is inappropriate and contradictory to the provisions in the EU treaties that outline the duties of commissioners where it says they must be independent," Maria Martens, a Dutch MEP, later told The Irish Times. "I think it is a question of him either resigning from the commission or stepping off the national list for the election."
Mr Michel told the commission in mid-March that he would take unpaid leave from his development post to campaign for his centre-right party in the Belgian general election on June 10th.
Under an agreement with the president, Mr Michel will vacate his post between May 12th and June 10th and return after the June campaign.
However, Mr Michel has not excluded taking up a national role if "my country needs me".
The commission says there are precedents for Mr Michel's action. It has cited former commissioners Jacques Santer and Emma Bonino, who took part in European elections in June 1999 and left the commission when elected as MEPs. In a statement yesterday, the commission said: "There have been plenty of precedents in the past. We are confident that Mr Michel's leave of absence is fully in line with EC law."
Mr Michel has also written to the development committee outlining that his decision expressed "the sacred principle that by becoming a commissioner we retain our freedom of political opinion . . . The institution isn't an administrative secretariat office formed by politically asexual personalities."
The parliament's legal service will issue a legal opinion before May 3rd - the date that Mr Michel has agreed to appear before the committee - on whether his absence complies with the EU treaties.
Development committee chairman Josep Borrell, the former president of the parliament, has also written to Mr Michel expressing disappointment at his decision to take a leave of absence.