Former European Commissioner José Manuel Durão Barroso is in major hot water today, accused of breaking a promise not to lobby for ‘new’ employers Goldman Sachs.
Campaigning group Corporate Europe Observatory – currently gunning to bring an end to what it terms ‘conflicts of interest’ posed by the ‘revolving door’ between politics and big business – received a letter describing the lapse from one of the commission’s vice presidents.
Jyrki Katainen – in charge of jobs and growth – said: “Indeed, I met with Mr Barroso from Goldman Sachs in the Silken Berlaymont Hotel in Brussels on 25 October 2017. Mr Barroso and I were the only participants to this meeting, where we mostly discussed trade and defence matters.”
The issue has prompted Alter-EU “a coalition of NGOs dedicated to transparency”, to formally lodge a complaint of maladministration.
Barroso’s appointment by Goldman Sachs – taken up just 18 months after he left office – was universally decried (click here) though technically he did nothing wrong. An ‘ad hoc ethics panel ruled that he had not violated rules of conduct, despite the fact that his lucrative posting had caused “turmoil” as well as “reputational damage to the commission and the Union more generally”.
According to the EU Observer, Barroso assured his successor Jean-Claude Juncker “that he would not lobby on behalf of his new employer”.
“I have not been engaged to lobby on behalf of Goldman Sachs and I do not intend to do so”, Barroso wrote to Juncker in a letter”, says the website – adding: “But now it appears that he did”.
And this sees Alter-EU ‘baying for blood’.
The group thinks “Mr Barroso’s activities on behalf of Goldman Sachs should be reviewed, presumably now by the Independent Ethics Committee”, and it recommends the ad-hoc ethics panel’s original opinion “must be deemed null”.
Meantime, Jyrki Katainen has said there were no records of the meeting, requested by Barroso.
“I usually do not take notes at meetings and I did not do so at this meeting either”, he wrote.
As the EU Observer remarks: “The EU’s access to documents regulation only allows citizens to demand publication of documents that exist”.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
