The scandal over French EU Commissioner Jacques Barrot (you know, the ex-conviction that he failed to mention) rumbles along, and the EU’s new president, Jose Barroso is doing his best to get everyone to, please, please, just move on. A Barroso spokeswoman is now saying that the offenses were ‘minor’ and ‘amnestied’. The latter is certainly true, and, as a former Maoist, the now right-of-center Barroso is always likely to be inclined to be forgiving of past errors, but to downplay Barrot’s old offense as “minor” may be a little too kind.
Over at the EU Referendum Blog, Richard North is less charitable: “if the commission decribes presiding over a £2.5 million illegal party funding scam [as] a “minor” offense, one really does have to wonder what you would have to do for it to be considered “major”.
But then he adds this: ” But there again, [by] commission standards, this probably is a minor offense.”
Indeed.