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http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/artic ... 65,00.html
Naked commissioner under fire
Luke Harding in Berlin
Friday December 8, 2006
The Guardian
The European commission vice-president, Günter Verheugen ... with his clothes on. Photograph: Felix Heyder/EPA
The European commission's German vice-president, Günter Verheugen, was battling to save his reputation yesterday after photographs emerged of him relaxing on the beach with his female chief of staff wearing just a baseball cap.
Mr Verheugen, 62, has dismissed as "pure slander" allegations that he had been having a relationship with his chief of cabinet, Petra Erler, 48. This year, Mr Verheugen, who is married, promoted his long-term friend to run his private office.
Yesterday Germany's Bild newspaper revealed the pair had sunbathed naked together during a beach holiday in August. Calling Mr Verheugen a "naked paddler", the paper said the pair relaxed on the dunes and swam. The German magazine Focus, which said it was considering publishing the photos, published pictures in October showing the pair holding hands on Lithuania's Baltic coast, sparking claims in Brussels that Ms Erler got her €11,579 (£7,840) a month job via favouritism.
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The European commission's president, José Manuel Barroso, defended his Social Democrat deputy, saying he had his full confidence. Yesterday, Mr Verheugen's office said there was no wrongdoing.
Mr Verheugen had previously claimed that Ms Erler, a German economics lecturer, was the best person for the job.
But Herbert Reul, a Christian Democrat and MEP, yesterday claimed Mr Verheugen had broken the EU ethics code. "I don't find it acceptable that a European commissioner runs around naked on the beach with a senior colleague."
Brussels conspiracy theorists say the revelations are linked to Mr Verheugen's remarks suggesting the EU's 25 commissioners had a "permanent power struggle" with their own bureaucrats, who saw themselves as the real power base in Brussels.
