Lawyers have cleared Europe's incoming agriculture chief of a possible conflict of interest because she owns a farm that receives European Union subsidies, the EU executive said on Wednesday.
Denmark's Mariann Fischer Boel, named last week as the EU's new agriculture commissioner, owns land that includes a fruit and flower farm which pocketed more than 80,000 euros ($98,050) in EU subsidies last year.
Fischer Boel, a former agriculture minister, told the European Commission earlier this week that her husband runs a company that receives income from the farm and pays its taxes.
The 204-hectare (500-acre) farm was inherited from her grandfather, Marius Boel, who invented Danish blue cheese, and is located on the island of Funen where Fischer Boel was born.
The Commission's legal service has now assessed her statement, which was accompanied by accounts.
"There is no incompatibility between her ownership of the land and being a member of the Commission," said Commission spokesman Stefaan de Rynck.
"Under Danish law, Mrs Fischer Boel has put a clear distance between her ownership of land and the exploitation of that land for agricultural purposes," he told a news briefing.
Brussels hands out millions of euros each year in agricultural subsidies to EU governments for distribution to individual farmers and holdings.
Fischer Boel's move follows accusations made in Denmark that her land ownership might prevent her from being an impartial commissioner - especially one holding the purse strings of almost half the EU's budget, valued at 100 billion euros a year.
European commissioners must declare all their interests and those of their spouses when they move to Brussels.
"That transparency is there to help ensure full independence in the exercise of their mandate - from national interests, company interests or personal interests," de Rynck said.
The European Parliament must approve the appointments of the EU's next team of commissioners, who are expected to begin their five-year terms on November 1.
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