I wonder how many are aware of the following uncomfortable realities with regard to the behaviour of Jose Manuel Barosso and Goldman Sachs, post Brexit.
According to this https://www.rt.com/business/350782-barroso-new-job-goldman/
EU politicians are demanding former European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is sanctioned for taking a job with Goldman Sachs. They say he has failed to “behave with integrity and discretion.”
He is criticized for joining the Wall Street bank that helped set off the 2008 financial crisis. Goldman has also been blamed for assisting Athens in hiding its financial situation in order to enter the eurozone in 2000.
Marisa Matias from the Confederal Group of the European United Left has called for an end to the impunity enjoyed by former EU officials.
“This appointment is completely shameful. Barroso waited for the end of his 18 months to immediately collect his reward for the good job he did for Goldman Sachs and the financial markets, by devastating the lives of millions of European citizens with austerity in Portugal, Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy, among others.”
“This shows what interests European leaders follow, and a good example of why the European Union got to this appalling state,” she added.
And according to this
https://www.euractiv.com/section/euro-finance/news/civil-servants-join-calls-to-cut-barrosos-eu-pension/
French MEPs attacked Barroso with quotes taken directly from the Lisbon Treaty. They stressed that all Commissioners, including the President of the Commission, had made a solemn commitment to “respect the obligations arising [from their function] and in particular their duty to behave with integrity and discretion as regards the acceptance, after they have ceased to hold office, of certain appointments or benefits”.
Pervenche Berès, the leader of the French Socialist delegation in the European Parliament, also recalled her 2010 proposal to boycott Goldman Sachs. Her delegation then called for a revision of the Code of Conduct for Commissioners to increase the conflict of interest period from 18 months to five years, to put an end to this kind of revolving door scenario.
And according to this
http://www.euractiv.com/section/public-affairs/opinion/how-to-prevent-barroso-from-becoming-yet-another-lobbyist/
Former Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, is about to take on new responsibilities as non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International. He was hired to advise the investment bank on how to react to and manage the Brexit shock.
Yes, you got it right: the former President of the EU executive is set to become the lobbyist-in-chief for the very same bank that first helped Greece to get into the eurozone and then speculated on the country’s successive misadventures.
Yet the ensuing furore and indignation among political leaders and some civil society organisations has quickly tempered.
Amid the EU Commission’s official statement providing its imprimatur to Barroso’s new job, virtually all observers have fretted to qualify this move ‘legal’. Once more, the dominant refrain is: let the doors revolve.
Contrary to the salvific rhetoric embraced by the Juncker Commission – and blindly echoed by most media outlet across Europe–, there exist legal obligations preventing Barroso from taking up the jobs and there are avenues to actually make that happen.
While the cooling-off period during which former Commissioners can’t “lobby nor advocate with members of the Commission and their staff for her/his business, client or employer” lasts for 18 months” (and Barroso left 20 months ago), there exists a deeper, long-lasting commitment “to promote the general interest of the Union and take appropriate initiatives to that end” (article 17 (1) TEU).
This duty translates into a duty “to behave with integrity and discretion as regards the acceptance…of certain appointments and benefit” (Article 245 TFEU) and not to disclose information (Article 339 TFEU). Both duties apply to Commissioners also “after they have ceased to hold office”.
To mitigate the personal and professional burden that those extra duties may have on their lives, former Commissioners receive (including Barroso himself) a transitional allowance for the duration of 36 months (not 18). This equals between 40 and 65 per cent of their final basic salary depending on the length of service.
So they appear to get the best of both worlds, 3 years of transitional allowance which equates to between 40 and 65 percent of their salary, and after 18 months the ability to gain a salary from a Bank that has a questionable history with regard to the financial crisis, which led to mass unemployment.
I wonder whatever happened to the call for revision of conduct of Commissioners?
This message was last edited by ads on 14/07/2016.