The European Commission is unlikely to initiate an inquiry into the alleged leaking in 1995 of a confidential letter concerning the second GSM licence competition.
But sources suggest Commission officials called as witnesses by the Moriarty Tribunal would be encouraged to give evidence - on condition such evidence did not involve revealing information still regarded as sensitive.
The lapse of seven years since the letter from the former Competition Commissioner, Mr Karel Van Miert, was written has made it almost impossible to determine for certain if the letter was leaked by the Commission. Fax records for 1995 are no longer available.
The Commission is a notoriously porous institution - to the delight of thousands of Brussels-based journalists, lobbyists and lawyers for whom inside information is precious. But the leaking of documents relating to Commission actions against member-states is highly unusual.
The Commission's Competition directorate general is a powerful body that determines, among other things, the admissibility of mergers and takeovers in the EU.
In cases where one company is suspected of attempting to create a monopoly, Competition officials often depend on rival companies for information to support their case.
