The Scandal of the EU Commission and their Revolving Doors - TruePublica
The Scandal of the EU Commission and their Revolving Doors
By Corporate Europe Observatory –
The Goldman Sachs employment of former EU Commission President Barroso
has placed the EU’s revolving door problem firmly on the political
agenda. Although many former EU commissioners have taken up compromising
roles with big business before, this is the first revolving door
scandal involving an ex-Commission President, a development that has
angered citizens, NGOs, EU governments and staff at the EU institutions alike.
Before what is now known as the Barroso scandal, more than one third
of commissioners from the former Barroso Commission that existed for ten
years from 2004 to 2014 had already taken up roles in corporations or other organisations with links to big business. These new roles were all authorised by the Commission.
Since May 2016 (when the period during which ex-commissioners were
obliged to seek authorisation for new roles ended), several Barroso
commissioners have moved into highly controversial new roles. Apart from
Barroso moving to Goldman Sachs, ex-trade commissioner Karel De Gucht joined the board of mining giant Arcelor Mittal, and former digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes has joined the boards of tech firms Uber and Salesforce.
