Jacques Barrot

Jacques Barrot (3 February 1937 – 3 December 2014) was a French politician, who served as European Commissioner for Justice between 2008 and 2010, after having spent four years serving as Commissioner for Transport (2004–2008) and Commissioner for Regional Policy for eight months (2004). He was also one of five vice-presidents of the 27-member Barroso Commission. He was officially approved in his post by the European Parliament on June 18, 2008 with a vote of 489 to 52 with 19 abstentions.Barrot was a European Commissioner between April 2004 and, serving as Commissioner for Regional Policy in the Prodi Commission before being selected as a Vice-President and Commissioner for Transport in the Barroso Commission.He was convicted in a French court of embezzlement in 2000. The case involved the diverting of £2 million of government money to his party. He received an eight-month suspended prison sentence. His conviction was automatically erased by a 1995 presidential amnesty.Barrot was approved by the European Parliament in 2004 for Commissioner of Transport and made a Vice-President in the new Barroso Commission. However shortly after he began work, his previous conviction was revealed by Nigel Farage, MEP for Independence and Democracy. French President Jacques Chirac had granted him presidential amnesty, a fact the Commissioner did not disclose during his hearing to the Parliament.