The Commission’s corporate job pipeline

More than a third of the members of the previous European Commission have taken corporate jobs and will be able to lobby the institution on behalf of their employers by early next year.

A new transparency survey shows that the former commissioners have accepted a total of 115 appointments to business and non-profit roles. The data offer the first bird’s-eye view of what critics argue is an ethically-dubious revolving door between the public and private sectors.

Former Commission President José Manuel Barroso tops the list with 22 new roles ranging from conference organizer to speaking gigs in Washington, D.C — all of which were approved under the institution’s ethics rules.

Nine out of 26 of the former commissioners have taken roles in the corporate world, including alumni now employed as board members of multinational companies, consultants and even as MEPs with a range of business interests.

The activists who crunched the data, from transparency NGO Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), say that the Commission’s decisions to allow former members to take the corporate jobs raise ethical questions. According to the group, the current Commission’s formally authorized 96 of the new appointments, with 36 of them passing through an ethics committee that examines potential conflicts of interest.

“The Commission has a major problem with the revolving door,” said Vicky Cann, a CEO campaigner. “Whether it is commissioners or officials, too many leave to or join from the private sector, leading to a risk of corporate capture and conflicts of interest.”

The lobbying transparency group criticized the Commission’s decisions to approve corporate roles for four former commissioners because, the group argues, the new positions have links to their previous Commission portfolios.

Former two-time commissioner Viviane Reding, now a Luxembourg MEP, has accepted a board position with digital information technology company Agfa-Gevaert — although the Commission approved the appointment on condition that Reding refrain from “lobbying and defending” the company’s interests in the Commission. In the most recent Commission, Reding was in charge of justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, from 2004 to 2010 she was in charge of the information society and media portfolio.

Reding had also been cleared to join the board of mining company Nyrstar, although her office has since told POLITICO she would not be accepting the appointment.

Karel De Gucht, the Belgian former commissioner for trade and one of the architects of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), has also been active in lining up paid consultancies since leaving office. De Gucht has been appointed to the board of telecommunications company Belgacom (now Proximus) and is working for CVC Capital Partners, a private equity and investment company.

Siim Kallas, the Estonian former transport commissioner, has maintained close ties with the Commission while acting as an advisor for software company Nortal. And Neelie Kroes, the Dutch former commissioner for the digital agenda, is a special adviser to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Under existing rules, any former commissioner seeking a new role — whether paid or unpaid — must clear it first with the sitting College of Commissioners, the EU’s executive council. On three occasions, requests to take up job offers have been withdrawn, but according to the College of Commissioners no request has ever been rejected.

CEO has raised specific concerns about the institution’s code of conduct, which governs how former commissioners — some of whom have since been elected to the European Parliament — are allowed to accept new jobs, particularly in the private sector.

The NGO is calling for an extension of the moratorium which prevents former commissioners from lobbying the Commission in their portfolio areas (from the current 18 months to three years) and wants to replace the Commission’s house committee which reviews such appointments with an independent, external committee.

“This whole area needs to be taken out of the hands of the Commission and given to fully independent experts,” Cann said.

A Commission spokesperson said Tuesday that its revolving door policies were “sound.”

“Our data shows that our approach is good and adequate, stricter than the one of most national governments and the other European institutions,” the spokesperson said.

Under the “Code of Conduct for Commissioners,” for 18 months after leaving office, any commissioner planning to engage in what is broadly described as an “occupation” needs to inform the Commission. Current members of the Commission then decide whether to authorize a role or whether to place restrictions on the job.

That decision is supposed to be based on EU treaty article 245, which requires former Commissioners to “respect the obligations arising” from the office they held and tell them to be mindful of “their duty to behave with integrity and discretion” when accepting offers.

Whenever a former commissioner seeks approval to work in an area relating to his or her former portfolio, the Commission can refer the matter to the Ad Hoc Ethical Committee, which then examines the appointment and recommends a course of action to the College. The committee is made up of a former Commission director-general, an ex-MEP and a former EU judge.

The rules ban all former commissioners from lobbying the Commission for 18 months after leaving office on behalf of clients, business interests or employers with any link to their former portfolio.

As a result of this 18-month moratorium, often the College’s approval for employment opportunities comes with strings attached — former commissioners are told, in no uncertain terms, that they are not to approach the Commission on matters relating to their former portfolios.

On occasion, that request is itself problematic. In one recent example, former commissioner Siim Kallas was appointed as a “special adviser” to Valdis Dombrovskis, the current commissioner for the euro and social dialogue — a role which gave him access to the European Commission.

However, when Kallas asked the current Commission to approve his work as a consultant for Baltic software company Nortal, he was told that he was not to lobby “the Commission and/or its departments on behalf of Nortal within eighteen months of leaving office.”

Kallas has since cut ties with Nortal.

Former commissioners are entitled to a generous transitional allowance for three years after leaving the Commission, ranging between 40 and 65 percent of a commissioner’s basic salary of €20,832 a month (the amount is higher for vice presidents and the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy).

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