Barroso must act quickly on Barrot revelations - Watson

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 19th Nov 2004

Commenting on the latest revelations concerning the past political activities of French European Commissioner Jacques Barrot, Graham Watson, leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (Liberal Democrat, UK) said today: "I call on the President of the Commission to react quickly and, together with the French government, to clarify the facts and to decide how to proceed."

Mr Watson added: "It seems that Jacques Barrot has no formal criminal record. However, the activity in which he was involved would disqualify him from holding public office in many EU member states. The EU needs urgently common European standards for those holding European public office".