Brussels, 06/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - I am persuaded that one of the duties of holding public office is to fully and opening justify one's actions. This is a duty I have never shirked from, neither in Italy nor here in Europe. This is how Romano Prodi answered in a press release the attacks made on him by the Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi in Monday on trial in Milan over the sale of SME to Buitoni in 1985 (rather than to Fininvest, Berlusconi's holding company). The Italian prime minister is a suspect in this case and has decided to defend himself by accusing the President of the European Commission (not using his name but referring to the "President of IRI" - the Italian state holding company - who was Prodi at the time). Saying that in this trial the integrity and ethics of the President of the Council was being judged, Berlusconi asked the court to change the timetable of hearing because of the upcoming Italian Presidency of the Council.
In a press release, President Prodi explains that the trial being held at the Milan court to establish whether in 1985, in the sale of IRI food company SME to Buitoni of the De Benedetti group, the crime of corrupting judges was committed. During the debate, questions were raised about whether the price set for the sale was too low and therefore caused damage to the state seller which provided a "gift" to the buyer, De Benedetti's Buitoni. The press release goes on, the final phases of the negotiations lasted twenty hours and were held at the Mediobanca headquarters in Milan. Romano Prodi was assisted right the way through to the end of the negotiations by the top three IRI managers… The price set for the sale of SME was 497 billion lire. To calculate this figure, IRI used an expert report by Roberto Poli, lecturer at the Catholic University of Milan, who in the past had been President of Publitalia (Mediaset group) and appointed by the Berlusconi government a few months ago as President of ENI. No comparison is possible between the price set in 1985 for the sale of SME and the outcome of sales made almost a decade later. At the time IRI had invested hundreds of billions to put its foodstuff sector back on a sound footing.
Commission to continue to cooperate with future Italian Presidency
Asked by reporters on Tuesday about the potential impact of Silvio Berlusconi's statements on cooperation between the upcoming Italian Presidency and the Commission, Commission spokesperson Reijo Kemppinen said the Commission would continue to work with the future Presidency, adding that a few weeks ago, Romano Prodi had met the Italian prime minister and president and that the standard Presidency - Commission meeting to mark the beginning of the new six month period would be held on 4 July. Didn't this create some uncertainty two months ahead of the new presidency? The spokesperson answered that he didn't see any, certainly not at the Commission. Prodi is not standing witness in the trail in Milan and has no plans to appeal against Silvio Berlusconi, he said in answer to other questions; He stressed that President Prodi had nothing to hide and that his press release had explained that the sale of SME had been negotiated in line with the rules in place and in the presence of several business leaders, not just of IRI but also of Mediobanca.