Possible conflict of interest cases ignored by Barrosso commission

Posted by Bronwen Maher on September 27, 2010 at 09:07 AM

Only one senior European Commission figure in the last two years has been barred from taking up a top job that may cause a conflict of interest with their former employment at the Commission.
 
Information secured by Nessa Childers MEP shows that 201 separate requests were made by Commission figures since January 2008 who were seeking permission to take up jobs following their time in the Commission where a potential conflict of interest with their former EU role may arise.
 
The Labour MEP said, “It could be argued that the Commission, under its own Code of Conduct should not have permitted Charlie McCreevy, a recent former Internal Markets Commissioner to take up a position on the Board of Ryanair not long after he left office in Brussels.
 
“This Barroso Commission has taken a light-touch regulation approach to the financial markets and it is now doing the same with the lucrative career prospects of its former members and officials. It is stretching credulity to accept that only one case of post-Commission employment out of 201 cases signaled for a possible conflict of interest was refused by the Commission's internal oversight authority.”
 
She continued, “In the wake of the revelations regarding Charlie McCreevy’s generous parachute payments and concerns in relation to the nature of employment enjoyed by some former officials the rules of the game need to be changed.
 
“The Commission’s own Code of Conduct must be reviewed urgently. The Code needs to act more as a brake on the future activities of former Commissioners and not merely a set of guidelines routinely interpreted to ensure the best deal possible for former senior figures.”
 
“I am demanding a review of the Code of Conduct for Commissioners for post-office employment; the introduction of a 'cooling-off' or 'quarantine' period of at least two years after their exit from the Commission and a much more transparent procedure to assess whether or not post-office employment is compatible with previous areas of responsibility and spheres of influence on the Commission,” Nessa Childers concluded.

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