Portugal’s Durão Barroso, former Prime Minister of Portugal, former EC President and current employee of the giant vampire squid, Goldman Sachs, has been caught lobbying on behalf of his employer, breaking a ban imposed by the European Commission when he left office.
EU Commissioner, Jyrki Katainen, confirmed he had a lobby meeting with Barroso who had his Goldman Sachs International hat on.
Katainen, EU Commissioner for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, has confirmed Barroso lobbied for investment bank Goldman Sachs International in a meeting at which the two discussed trade and defence.
After Barroso’s highly controversial appointment by Goldman Sachs in 2016, the ex-EU president told his successor, Jean-Claude Juncker, that of course he would not be lobbying EU institutions on behalf of his new employer.
This promise led the European Commission’s ethics committee to conclude that Barroso’s appointment would not interfere with his continuing duty to maintain integrity and discretion as set out in the EU treaties.
Katainen’s confirmation suggests that Barroso has ignored his earlier undertaking, an undertaking which protected his more than ample EU pension, and has betrayed the ethics committee’s trust that he would stick to his word.
European pressure group, ALTER-EU, has filed a complaint urging the Commission to re-evaluate Barroso’s job at Goldman Sachs as he has been active in lobbying the European Commission.
Margarida Silva from ALTER-EU commented today, “Commissioner Katainen’s letter strongly suggests that Barroso is indeed using his privileged position to lobby the EU on behalf of Goldman Sachs. No one outside the institution has more insider know-how, contacts and lingering influence than a former president of the Commission, which is a great asset for any actor seeking to influence EU policy.”
“Given the new facts, the Commission’s ethics committee must re-assess its acceptance of Barroso’s role at Goldman Sachs. Former Presidents using their insider status to shape EU policy on behalf of a new employer shows neither integrity nor discretion.”
Myriam Douo from ALTER-EU member group Friends of the Earth Europe said, “This meeting is an excellent example of how the revolving door between politics and business benefits corporations. Barroso was able to set up a one-on-one meeting with a sitting commissioner with a single phone call. They met in a hotel and no minutes were kept of any part of the discussion.
“Only an insider like Barroso can get this type of highly-privileged access, which undermines democracy and feeds distrust in European cooperation. Barroso must face repercussions for breaking the European Treaties and his case be forwarded to the European Court of Justice.”
The confirmation of the lobby meeting between Barroso and Katainen added weight to an earlier complaint by ALTER-EU, which highlighted that the assessment of the former President’s new role was too narrow to fulfil the requirements of Article 245 of the European Treaties.
