EU/France: A Brussels court dismissed a case yesterday against former French prime minister Edith Cresson on embezzlement charges related to her time as a member of the European Commission due to lack of evidence.
Judge Dominique De Wolf also threw out the case against six former aides, a day after the prosecutor asked the court to dismiss the case because she deemed it to be a political matter.
"I have been waiting for this day for a long time. There was nothing in any of the charges. The allegations were based on mere gossip," Ms Cresson told a news conference after attending the court hearing.
"Things have been put back in their proper context," said public prosecutor Marianne Thomas. "I think the Belgian justice system was used to try to settle scores." The charges related to business trip costs when Cresson was a member of the EU executive between 1995 and 1999.
De Wolf's decision came as Cresson was questioned by the Commission about administrative proceedings taken against her under EU treaty obligations.
A Commission spokesman declined to comment after the hearing on grounds of confidentiality. EU sources said the Commission would decide in late July whether to take Ms Cresson to the European Court of Justice.
The spokesman said it was not the Commission that initiated the complaint to the Belgian justice authorities, and said the two cases were completely separate.
The Belgian lawsuit was filed by Flemish nationalist European Parliament member Ms Nelly Maes and former EU civil servant Mr Paul van Buitenen, a self-declared whistle-blower.
Van Buitenen's allegations of nepotism and mismanagement helped bring down the entire Commission of which Cresson was a member in 1999 under threat of parliamentary censure.
The main allegation in a withering parliamentary report was that Cresson had recruited a dentist and personal friend from her French constituency of Chatellerault as a scientific adviser paid by the Commission, even though he had no qualification.
Cresson, who was in charge of education and research in the EU executive, was the first former commissioner to face questioning over possible criminal offences.