European Research Commissioner Edith Cresson (L) chats with European Development Commissioner Joao de Deus Pinheiro (R) prior to the weekly Commission meeting in Brussels March 17. Demands for the instant departure of the disgraced European Commission mounted on Wednesday as Brussels attempted to carry on business as usual despite the resignation of the executive. The emotional heat was likely to flare even higher as news spread from Paris that defiant Commissioner Cresson, regarded by many as the unrepentant villain of the piece, was alleging that the expert report which slammed the Commission had been rewritten at the last minute to make her look bad.

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