Barroso plans tougher conflict of interest rules

Commission to publish draft changes to its code of conduct for commissioners

The European Commission will on Tuesday (9 November) publish draft changes to its code of conduct for commissioners, hoping to clear up MEPs’ concerns over the way that conflict of interest problems are handled.

Officials said the changes to the current code were to be sent to commissioners by José Manuel Barroso, the Commission president, for evaluation and then submitted to the European Parliament’s budgetary control committee.

Barroso gave MEPs commitments last year that he would undertake a review of the Commission’s 2004 code of conduct to reflect “high ethical standards”.

Ethics committee

Officials said changes were likely to include plans to beef up the work of the special ad-hoc ethics committee, which is tasked with examining whether posts taken by ex-commissioners pose a conflict of interest.

“What we have to look at is how to make absolutely clear there cannot be conflicts of interest,” said a Commission official.

He said the Commission wanted to avoid any repetition of the “bad press” that followed Charlie McCreevy taking a job with a UK investment bank shortly after stepping down as the European commissioner for the internal market in February. McCreevy resigned from the post last month after the Commission’s ethics panel said it posed a potential conflict of interest.

The source said the work of the ethics committee, which is made up of three people, could be made more transparent to give it more legitimacy and authority. Under current rules, recommendations made by the committee are not binding.

Tougher rules on gifts

MEPs voted on 20 October to propose freezing part of next year’s EU budget for European commissioners’ salaries and allowances until Barroso comes forward with changes to the code of conduct.

MEPs also want tougher rules on the gifts that commissioners can accept and binding penalties for those that violate the code.

Derk-Jan Eppink, a Belgian MEP from the European Conservatives and Reformists group, said reforms should include extending the length of time during which ex-commissioners have to submit to the ethics committee for approval any new posts that they wish to take up. At present, the scrutiny period is only one year.