Kinnock denies 'witch-hunt' against EU whistleblower

Neil Kinnock, the European Commission vice-president, accused his critics yesterday of putting him "in the stocks" during heated exchanges over claims he tried to gag a whistleblowing official.

In a hearing in the European Parliament, Mr Kinnock said the truth was being "misrepresented". He said claims made on behalf of the former chief accountant Marta Andreasen were a result of "ignorance".

Earlier this year, Ms Andreasen went public with allegations that EU accounting procedures leave it open to massive fraud, after being moved from her post. She was later suspended after taking her complaints to MEPs.

The Conservative MEP Chris Heaton-Harris likened the financial control inside the EU to the scandals at Enron and Worldcom, and challenged Mr Kinnock over the Commission's request that Ms Andreasen sign off accounts with which she was unhappy.

Mr Kinnock responded: "Only ignorance can excuse references to Enron and Worldcom." When asked to keep his answers short, he replied: "We are paid to be in the stocks but never to respond."

Mr Heaton-Harris also claimed the former chief accountant was subjected to "disgraceful" harassment at Brussels National airport by being presented with a faxed letter telling her she was being moved from her job. Ms Andreasen told journalists after the hearing that she had been ordered to return to the office but had declined as she was about to board a plane. An open fax was then delivered by airport officials, she said.

Mr Kinnock said earlier attempts to deliver a letter to Ms Andreasen had failed.

The outline of the Commission's case is that Ms Andreasen did not observe the procedures open to whistleblowers who are entitled to take their case to the presidents of the European Council, the European Parliament, Court of Auditors or to the European ombudsman. Instead, she went to a group of MEPs and then to the media. No other civil service would permit such behaviour, Mr Kinnock argues.

Ms Andreasen faces three charges under disciplinary proceedings based on the fact that she made negative public statements about her employer, that she failed to take complaints through the proper hierarchy and that she absented herself from work without permission. Ms Andreasen said she will not attend a disciplinary hearing unless it is conducted in public – a format Mr Kinnock has rejected.

Last night, MEPs split down party lines. But Michiel van Hulten, a Dutch socialist MEP, said Ms Andreasen could not be compared to the former Dutch official and whistleblower Paul van Buitenen, who helped cause a mass resignation of the European Commission in 1999.

"We put in place a mechanism to make sure there was some way for people like Van Buitenen to act properly," said Mr Van Hulten. "Marta Andreasen went outside the institutions and did not do it in the way agreed in the whistleblowers' charter."