Wednesday, August 29, 2007 at 15:30
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BRUSSELS (EUX.TV) — European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Wednesday denied that he played a role in the financing scandal that has hit Portugal’s social-democrat PSD party.

“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,” said Barroso in a letter to the European Parliament.

Barroso, who was president of PSD in 2001 and became Prime Minister of Portugal in 2002, the period when the irregularities took place, said party financing at that time was the responsibility of the Secretary General, Jose Luis Arnaut. Arnaut has already taken his responsibility, he said.

“There is no legal accusation against me on this matter,” Barroso said.

The scandal centers on funds received by the PSD from a Portuguese construction company, Somague. Portuguese media say the company has donated 233,000 euro to the party. That amount was bigger than allowed under Portuguese laws.

On several occassions in recent days, European Commission spokespeople have stressed that this scandal should be seen as a national issue in Portugal, and not as one that should be addressed by the European Commission.

Barroso’s response came after several members of the European Parliament, including Belgian MEP Bart Staes, put their questions in writing.

European Commission has no comment

“Obviously, this is strictly a national matter, which has nothing to do with the responsibilities and activities of the European Commission,” writes Barroso.

“It is being dealt with by the relevant national authorities, and the Commission accordingly has no clarification or comment to make on the matter.”

Barroso said he did decide to respond because he feels that the European Commission and the European Parliament “attach great importance to being transparent and above reproach in public and political life.”

Barroso also said that, as Prime Minister of Portgal, he had urged his PSD party to clean up its financing act.

“When I was Prime Minister, I indicated to my party that parliamentary initiatives should be taken with a view to adopting stricter and more transparent legislation on party funding than that which was in force at the time of these events, in particular by introducing the principle of a criminal offence and substantially increasing public funding, which came about in 2003.

Favoritism ‘categorically’ denied

Portuguese media have suggested that Somague has received preferential treatment from the Barroso-led government that took office in 2002. Barroso refered to a statement issued by the family of the former state secretary of public works.

“In this connection, I can only inform you that the family of the State Secretary for Public Works of the time, Mr José Luís Vieira de Castro, who is too unwell to do so himself, has already made a public statement categorically denying that this occurred and setting out a full set of facts to demonstrate the absence of any favourable treatment.”

– From the EUX.TV newsroom news@eux.tv

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