Childers welcomes commission decision to block new McCreevy job

Posted by Bronwen Maher on October 07, 2010 at 03:37 PM

Labour MEP Nessa Childers today welcomed the speedy response by the European Commission’s Ethics Committee to her calls to block former Commissioner Charlie McCreevy from taking up a lucrative post with UK-based NBNK Investments.

"The manner in which this decision was made is further proof of the power of the directly elected European Parliament under the Lisbon Treaty. This decision, was taken only a few days after a vote by the European Parliament’s powerful Budget Committee to freeze the salaries and allowances of European Commissioners unless urgent changes are made to the Code of Conduct governing their post-Commission employment. I am hopeful that this will send out a strong signal that the Commission has ended its laissez-faire attitude to the post-Commission employment of its former members.  

"Last week’s vote showed that the Parliament will not tolerate any repeat of the cases we recently experienced of former Commissioners walking straight into high-paid positions after their time in Barroso's cabinet, jobs in some cases that may have potentially represented a conflict of interest.

"The Commission's Code of Conduct on the post-EU employment of former Commissioners 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."

"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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