Brussels, 27/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Italian minister for agriculture resigned on Sunday 26 January. She is suspected of abusing her position by inappropriately appointing certain members of staff in the public health sector and an investigation has been opened into the way EU funds to agriculture have been managed.
Speaking on Twitter, Nunzia De Girolamo stated: “I am resigning as a minister. I cannot continue to be part of a government that has failed to defend my honour”. De Girolamo was accused this month of having exercised undue influence in the selection of certain health sector officials in Benevento, a town in southern Campania, following revelations in the media and telephone tapping reports in 2012.
On Saturday, the Italian press reported that allegations of misappropriation of funds had been made against the minister, after the Italian financial police confirmed that it had been carrying out an investigation this week, as part of a probe into the distribution of European Union funds. According to reports in the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, investigators are looking at irregularities in the way that around €8.9 billion in investment was allocated to Italy between 2007 and 2013. De Girolamo has so far not been the subject of any investigation and on Saturday she declared that the police investigation covered a period when she was not even in post. (LC/transl.fl)