Commission investigation of new McCreevy banking job welcome

Posted by Bronwen Maher on October 05, 2010 at 05:59 PM

Labour MEP Nessa Childers welcomed confirmation from the European Commission that it is investigating former Commissioner Charlie McCreevy's lucrative new job with NBNK Investments, which is buying up distressed banking assets.
Commission spokesman Michael Mann has confirmed that his latest Directorship is under investigation for possible conflicts of interest and the Commissions internal oversight body is assessing whether it in line with their Code of Conduct.
Last weeks vote by the European Parliaments powerful Budget Committee to freeze the salaries and allowances of European Commissioners, unless urgent changes are made to this Code of Conduct, has now resulted in this new investigation by the Commission.
 
"This vote showed that the parliament will not tolerate any repeat of a cases of Commissioners walking straight into high-paid positions after their time in Barroso's cabinet, which may potentially cause a conflict of interest.
 
The Labour MEP said, "The Commission should not have permitted Charlie McCreevy to take up a position on the Board of Ryanair soon after leaving their ranks. He has also recently taken up this Directorship position with UK-based NBNK Investments, which is actually by buying up distressed banks assets and thus feeding off the financial crisis which he himself helped create with his light-touch regulation approach to the financial markets. The bitter irony will not be lost of the thousands of people in Ireland and across Europe who lost their jobs due to the financial crisis.
 
"The Commission's Code of Conduct which dates back to 1967, 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."

"Last weeks vote, the parliament is 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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