Brussels, 01/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - In a press release, Luxembourg Socialist Robert Goebbels, MEP, speaks of the cost of the committee of independent experts, which had been instructed to examine the management of the European Commission, and whose first report had caused the Santer team to resign. Mr Goebbels put questions to the Commission and the President of the Parliament on this matter.
In her reply, Nicole Fontaine points out that payments made to the experts amount to a total of EUR 353,268, 50% of which is borne by the Commission Estimates of the cost of officials allocated full-time to the work of the experts, operating costs and the cost of translation and printing of reports amounts to EUR 282,000.
The total cost would therefore amount to the tidy sum of EUR 635,268, notes Mr Goebbels, who states that the "cost of independent expertise (some would say the "cost of wisdom") is worth its weight in gold, and that the independence of the five experts had an average individual cost in allowances and fees of around BF 2.5 million.