EU: Former EU commissioner and French prime minister Edith Cresson acted "in breach of her obligations and duties" to her office by appointing a friend to a top EU post.
But the EU's highest court ruled yesterday that she should not lose her pension from her former EU position as the legal finding against her was an "appropriate penalty".
Ms Cresson, who was a controversial prime minister while in office in France in 1991 and 1992, was a central figure in the drama surrounding the dismissal of the entire European Commission in 1999 amid allegations of rampant cronyism.
The disclosure that she had employed her dentist, René Berthelot, as a personal adviser sparked the controversy over a culture of favouritism which led to all commissioners serving under former president Jacques Santer being forced to resign.
Yesterday's ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) brings to an end a legal battle over whether the commission could strip Ms Cresson of her pension and other benefits.
In February this year, Advocate-General Leendert Geelhoed suggested to the ECJ that Ms Cresson should lose half her annual €47,000 EU pension because of the serious nature of the allegations made against her.
In its ruling yesterday the ECJ agreed with the advocate-general's opinion that Ms Cresson had breached her obligations and duties to her office as a commissioner.
"In appointing a close acquaintance, Mr Berthelot, as a visiting scientist . . . even though the latter was fully staffed and, moreover, Mr Berthelot (66) had passed the permitted age limit for performing that role, Mrs Cresson became liable for a breach of her obligations of a certain degree of gravity," the court stated in its judgment.
But the ECJ ruled that Ms Cresson should not lose her pension or other benefits: "While the breach of the obligations arising from the office of member of the commission calls, in principle, for the imposition of a penalty, the court held that, having regard to the circumstances of the case, the finding of breach constitutes, of itself, an appropriate penalty."
The ECJ also dismissed claims that Ms Cresson had acted in breach of the obligations of her office by offering work contracts to another of her personal acquaintances, a commercial lawyer.
The court considered that the information which had been brought to its attention did not justify such a finding.
British Conservative MEP Richard Ashworth, who sits on the European Parliament's budget committee, said that the ECJ ruling sent out the wrong signal.
"Mr Berthelot was paid £100,000 between 1995 to 1997 and produced just 24 pages of notes, which were judged to be worthless by experts," Mr Ashworth said. "Taxpayers will rightly be infuriated to hear that they are having to fork out a healthy pension for a woman who has already misused their hard-earned money. She should not get a penny more."