European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso believes French Commissioner Jacques Barrot has explained a previously undisclosed conviction and will make an excellent EU commissioner.
Mr Barrot wrote to the European Parliament today to clarify facts surrounding the amnestied 2000 conviction for embezzlement.
Mr Nigel Farage UKIP MEP
"Mr Barroso feels that under these conditions Mr Barrot will be an excellent commissioner," an EU spokeswoman said, although she conceded the Commission chief would rather have known about the case from the outset and not learned just now.
Mr Barrot (67), a member of President Jacques Chirac's conservative UMP party, received a suspended prison sentence in 2000 for embezzlement in connection with party funding, but it was immediately erased by a 1995 presidential amnesty and does not carry a criminal record.
Mr Barrot was one of two of Mr Barroso's new 24-strong team who had come under scrutiny recently after investigation by the UK Independence Party (UKIP).
UKIP - which revealed Mr Barrot's past last week - claims Estonian commissioner Mr Siim Kallas was convicted in 2001 of providing false information during a theft trial.
Mr Kallas was acquitted of fraud charges during a trial for theft of $10 million from the Central Bank of Estonia in an oil-trading racket. But the fact he has been handed the anti-fraud dossier in the Commission is bound to add to Mr Barroso's problems.
UKIP MEP Mr Nigel Farage commented: "You could not make it up." Mr Farage caused uproar just minutes before MEPs finally approved the new Commission team last Thursday when he revealed Mr Barrot was convicted of embezzlement over political party funding in 2000 and given an eight-month suspended jail term.
But MEPs shouted Mr Farage down and went ahead with the confirmation vote, overwhelmingly approving the new Commission and congratulating themselves for forcing the removal from the team of controversial Italian Mr Rocco Buttiglione.
Mr Buttiglione had admitted to MEPs his view that homosexuality is a sin, and explained his opinions on the role of women.