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JULY 26, 2004
The Fighting Dutchman A whistleblower turned politician aims to clean up the European Commission When Dutch auditor Paul van Buitenen sought to curb corruption in the European Commission in the 1990s, his revelations to the European Parliament forced EC President Jacques Santer and his entire 20-member commission to resign. But the muckraking bureaucrat reaped a bitter reward: Officials disciplined him for violating procedural rules, docked his pay by 50% for four months, and transferred him to a low-level job monitoring outlays for objects such as lightbulbs. "They did everything to crush me," says van Buitenen. "But I [was] able to resist." Back he is, as a newly elected member of the European Parliament, taking office on July 20. And he's fighting mad. He insists little has changed over the past five years inside the EC, the executive branch of the European Union which oversees the EU's $134 billion budget. Van Buitenen estimates the cost of corruption and mismanagement to EU citizens could be as much as $37 billion. "By kicking open doors, I will show where it stinks," he says. His critics at the EC insist such estimates are exaggerated and that reforms since 1999 have curbed the potential for abuse. "We are convinced the changes protect us as far as is possible against fraud and mismanagement," says an EC spokesman. But this crusading Dutchman is not about to give up. Europe Transparent, the new party founded by van Buitenen, won a surprising 7.3% of the vote in the Netherlands and two seats in the 732-member European Parliament. Public sentiment against an anonymous, unaccountable Brussels bureaucracy is on the rise. And a clutch of newly elected euroskeptics, roughly 15% of the new Parliament, may find common cause in his battles. The 47-year-old even has a pulpit from which to preach the gospel of transparency: a seat on the budget control committee. "He's very honest and very pro-Europe. We hope to work closely with him," says Green Parliament member Bart Staes. MORE DIRT TO COME For starters, van Buitenen wants to make sure there is no whitewash of the corruption cases he exposed in 1999. An independent investigation confirmed many of his claims, but the commission has yet to sanction anyone. This month, the outgoing commissioners may decide whether former Research Commissioner Edith Cresson bears any responsibility for mismanagement and fraud uncovered in her former directorate. She denies any wrongdoing. A Belgian criminal court recently cleared her, but van Buitenen says the important message is the one sent by the EC about policing itself. "Any attempt to cover things up will backfire in their faces," he says, vowing to release more documents -- revealing who knew what and when -- if the commission fails to act. Van Buitenen thinks it's vital to grant Parliament more control over the EC. To bolster accountability, he will lobby for greater parliamentary access to spending and audit documents. He also hopes to bolster the independence of the EU's own anti-fraud unit, support the creation of a new post of EU public prosecutor, and improve the rules protecting whistleblowers. The Dutchman's cleanup drive is a long shot: The main parties have expressed little interest in his cause. His most vital support may come from within the organization he hopes to change. Van Buitenen has received dozens of calls from employees frustrated by the EC's response to wrongdoing. "They are asking me to stop this insanity," he says. Ultimately it will be the press that galvanizes public support for change, not Parliament, says Jens Peter Bonde, a Christian Democrat reformer from Denmark. When it comes to headlines about cleaning up Europe, van Buitenen is sure to make them.  By Gail Edmondson in Brussels Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | |
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