Portugal:European Commission president José Manuel Barroso said yesterday that he knew nothing about illegal funding of his party in Portugal which took place shortly before he became the country's prime minister in 2002.
Some members of the European Parliament had asked Mr Barroso whether he knew about payments made by a building firm to his Social Democrats and whether the firm received any preferential treatment in return.
"I had no knowledge of and obviously no involvement in this affair or in any other issue directly related to the funding of the party," he said in a letter to European Parliament president Gert Poettering.
Mr Barroso was party leader from 1999 and became prime minister in 2002 but left those posts to head the European Commission in 2004.
He noted in his letter that the party's former secretary general, Jose Luis Arnaut - number two to Mr Barroso in the party leadership at the time of the payments - had assumed political responsibility for the affair.
Mr Barroso also recalled that the family of the state secretary for public works at the time, José Luis Vieira de Castro, had denied that the construction firm had received any favour from the Barroso-led government.
"I would also like to express my personal consideration for Mr Arnaut and Mr Vieira de Castro, as well as my confidence in their personal integrity," he said.
Portugal's constitutional court convicted building firm Somague in June of paying the Social Democrats a sum (€233,000) exceeding the legal limit for private donations to political parties in Portugal. The cash was to pay for the services of a public-relations company.
- (Reuters)