EU officials on defensive over holiday hospitality

José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, was yesterday forced on to the defensive after it emerged he had accepted a holiday on the yacht of a Greek shipping and banking tycoon.Peter Mandelson, the EU trade commissioner, also faced questions about a New Year's holiday in the Caribbean, which he tacked on to an official visit.Both men said there had been no conflict of interest and insisted they had a right to a private life.But the revelations, which were published in the German newspaper Die Welt yesterday, cast light on the lack of any official register showing the receipt of hos-pitality by commissioners.