EU: The Eurostat scandal scarcely bears comparison with the events that led to the fall of the Santer Commission, writes Denis Staunton in Strasbourg.
Yesterday was a fine day for a hanging and a lynch mob of MEPs and reporters gathered in Strasbourg with high hopes of seeing Mr Pedro Solbes swing.
They were cruelly robbed of their prize, however, by an exercise of restraint on the part of parliamentary leaders and an impressive display of loyalty by Mr Solbes's boss, Mr Romano Prodi.
The Eurostat scandal is not yet over and the president of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox, made it clear yesterday that Mr Solbes could still be forced from office when the full facts are known.
The Commission however has reason to be pleased this morning that it has averted, for the moment, its biggest crisis since the mass resignation of Mr Jacques Santer's team in 1999.
Mr Prodi made no attempt to play down the gravity of the irregularities at Eurostat, where a system of secret accounts and phoney contracts was in operation for many years.
He promised that the Commission would co-operate fully with all inquiries into the scandal and would ensure that nothing similar would happen again.
"We have initiated disciplinary proceedings against three senior officials in Eurostat. We will initiate further proceedings where new facts so require.
"I take this opportunity to affirm my unwavering determination to get to the bottom of this affair. It will take time, but the boil will be lanced and the evil rooted out. Do not doubt my commitment or my determination regarding transparency vis-à-vis parliament and especially the Committee on Budgetary Control," he said.
The European Parliament's Budgetary Control Committee is chaired by Ms Diemut Theato, a German MEP who is likely to emerge as the star of the Eurostat investigation during the coming months.
A magnificent raven-haired figure, Ms Theato looks like a rather glamorous Roman empress.
She is also a fierce watchdog over EU finances who will brook no opposition to her committee's attempt to get to the bottom of the Eurostat affair and to apportion blame where it belongs.
Despite Mr Prodi's talk of evil and the appetite of some MEPs to revisit the intoxicating days of 1999, the Eurostat scandal scarcely bears comparison with the events that led to the fall of the Santer Commission.
For a start, there is no evidence of personal enrichment, even on the part of Mr Yves Franchet, Eurostat's former director general and the man on whom Mr Prodi heaped blame yesterday.
Most of the irregularities ended before the present Commission entered office and, unlike the 1999 scandal, all wrongdoing appears to have been the responsibility of relatively minor figures who enjoyed a distant relationship with the commissioners.
An internal auditors' report on Eurostat will be completed by late October and Ms Theato's committee will, after questioning the main actors, present a report for debate in parliament in January.
By then, the appetite among MEPs for a confrontation with the Commission may have diminished, not least because of the proximity of next May's European elections.
Many MEPs will be reluctant to face the voters amid the whiff of yet another EU scandal, partly because many citizens fail to distinguish between the European institutions and could be inclined to reject all things European.
Mr Cox will play an important role in guiding the parliament's approach to the remaining months of the investigation.
He will seek to ensure that the Commission remains fully accountable to Europe's elected representatives but keeping parliament's response proportionate.
It is a task well suited to his political and diplomatic strengths and his success in fulfilling it could influence his public standing as he considers the next stage in his extraordinary career.