The European Union's top court ruled today that former French prime minister Edith Cresson had breached her obligations when she served as a member of the European Commission by appointing her dentist as an aide.
But it decided against stripping her of her pension rights, as sought by the commission, saying the condemnation for breach of her duties was sufficient punishment.
Mr Jacques Santer
The commission had taken legal action against Mrs Cresson, who served on the EU executive from 1995 to 1999, seeking to strip her of her pension rights on grounds of nepotism.
The Cresson case was part of a wider scandal over cronyism and mismanagement that forced the resignation of the entire European Commission led by Jacques Santer in 1999 under threat of censure by the European Parliament.
A Belgian court decided in 2004 that there were no grounds for criminal proceedings against Mrs Cresson after a member of parliament filed a complaint against her.
But the European Court of Justice found she was guilty of a serious breach of her oath of office.
"In appointing a close acquaintance, Mr (Rene) Berthelot, as a visiting scientist, when he was not going to be engaged in the activities associated with that position, in order to allow him to undertake the role of a personal adviser within her cabinet . . . Mrs Cresson became liable for a breach of her obligations of a certain degree of gravity," the court said.
It cleared Mrs Cresson on a secondary charge of offering work contracts to another personal acquaintance, a commercial lawyer.
Mrs Cresson, a Socialist former agriculture and trade minister, served briefly as France's first woman prime minister in 1990-91; she was appointed by the late president Francois Mitterrand.