14/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - The role that the former German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, is to play in the future in the Russian gas company, Gazprom, is a “scandal that brings Mr Schröder down to Berlusconi's level”, Daniel Cohn-Bendit told the press in Strasbourg on Tuesday. The co-president of the Greens/EFA Group denounces the “privatisation of politics” and calls on German politicians who retire to respect the code of conduct governing the activities that they will be authorised to carry out. Gerhard Schröder had strongly supported the gas pipeline project between Russia and Germany, Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the EPP-ED Group, recalled for his part. The CDU elected member is “strictly opposed to an eminent German figure who was once the Chancellor accepting this kind of post” and considers that the presence of Schröder at Gazprom can but “cause annoyance in Poland and in the Baltic States”, countries that are not greatly in favour of the gas pipeline project. German Social Democrat Martin Schulz, who presides the Socialist Group, said Mr Schröder is now a “private individual who, after completing his term of office, has taken on a responsibility that is as yet unknown to me” and on which he can therefore not comment. Gazprom defended its decision to take on Gerhard Schröder stressing above all his “excellent contacts” within the European institutions.