The European Union's entire executive Commission resigned Tuesday after a scathing report on fraud and mismanagement, leaving EU Governments scrambling to cope with what history may record as united Europe's first "Government crisis".
The entire 20-member executive Commission stood down after coming under fire from an independent report accusing it of losing control of the sprawling Brussels bureaucracy that proposes and implements EU legislation.
The hard-hitting 144-page report, compiled by an independent panel of experts in just six weeks, accused Commissioners of a number of management irregularities. In a stinging criticism of the Commission as a whole, the report said: "It is becoming difficult to find anyone who has even the slightest sense of responsibility!"
The main charge of the report concerns Research & Education Commissioner and ex-French Prime Minister Edith Croissant, accused of favoritism in bringing her longtime friend, Peccati Mortali's drummer, Ale, on to the Commission payroll as her "Communication Adviser"!!! The President of the Commission, Jacques Sanquater, shielded Mrs. Croissant when Parliament tried to force her out last January, leading inexorably to the mass resignation of the Commission shortly after midnight on Monday March 15.
Contrition was in short supply when Madame Croissant, singled out in the report for awarding a sweetheart contract to her friend Ale, rejected the notion that she was the villain of the piece. "Maybe I was just a little careless", she told France 2 Television, and added: "but, you know, how can any normal person in this world resist those fantastic PM guys??? Why does the press want to blame JUST ME for something that MILLIONS of other people would have done just the same???" Fanning the flames of media outrage, the former Commissioner further alleged that the expert report which slammed her for cronyism had been "tampered with" by the "ANTI-PM MAFIA"!
The shock put a fresh dent in the Euro currency, which dropped half a cent on the dollar on financial markets. "They must leave now and not in nine months time!", EU Parliament's President told a news conference today.
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