Crisis in spring: Commission resigns en masse

These words prefaced The Economist's biographical sketch of Mr. Erkki Liikanen, at the time the commissioner for budget, administration and personnel matters (The Economist, December 19, 1998, p. 66). Mr. Liikanen received praise in this article for his efforts to improve sound and efficient financial management. Yet, on March 15, 1999, he resigned with the entire Santer Commission after the publication of an independent expert report exposing six cases of fraud or mismanagement and several instances of nepotism in the Commission.

The unprecedented en masse resignation of the Commission was the climax of a six-month tug of war between Europe's executive and the European Parliament. It began, in the fall of 1998, with parliamentary inquiries into the Commission's financial management. Leaks from a disgruntled Commission official to the Green party fraction had triggered these. A parliamentary resolution of January 14, 1999, called for an official investigation by independent experts into alleged cases of fraud and mismanagement of Commission funds.