Eyebrows raised after former Commissioner Borg joins Brussels PR company

Transparency campaigners are worried that a PR company which lobbies the EU on maritime issues has managed to engage former maritime affairs commissioner Joe Borg and one of his assistants, according to the EU Observer.

It said the alarm was raised after Dr Borg was engaged to work for Fipra, a PR consultancy actively lobbying on maritime issues in Brussels.

The European Commission last month gave Dr Borg the green light to work at the firm, saying: "In view of the fact that Mr Borg's envisaged activity falls outside the scope of his portfolio during his time in office," it did not even need to convene its Ethics Committee, a body which examines potential conflict of interest when commissioners leave the EU.

Dr Borg is to join his old colleague, John Richardson, a former director in the European Commission's "Directorate General Mare," the EU's maritime and fisheries department, until August 2008, who the next month became Fipra's "maritime policy and diplomacy special advisor."

Corporate Europe Observatory, the EU transparency watchdog, has sharply criticised the developments, noting that Fipra had not even signed up to the commission's own lobbyist registry.

"These two unacceptable revolving doors cases show that the commission's narrow interpretation makes the rules applying to former commissioners and commission staff totally irrelevant," the group's Erik Wesselius said. "Fipra appear to have bought up the top of the EU's maritime department lock, stock and barrel."

A total so far of six of the 13 EU commissioners who retired earlier this year have now gone on to work for banks, lobbying firms, insurance companies and airlines.

The crux of Messrs Borg and Richardson's defence is that their new activities do not overlap with their old commission jobs, EU Observer said.

Dr Borg, when notifying the commission of his new post, said he is "in principle not going to advise clients on matters related to his former commission portfolio." When contacted by EUobserver, Mr Richardson said: "The role I play is in advising companies on their dealings with governments. That's clearly in the public interest."

Fipra's chairman, Peter Lehrell, told the EU Observer website:

"Mr Borg will not be performing any tasks related to his past portfolio whatsoever, although I would like the right to go back to the commission and say: 'Do you mind if we do?'" he added. "He was Maltese foreign minister for a while ...I hired him because we don't have any representation there and I need a good man in Malta."

The website said Dr Borg was recruited by the PR agency after a meeting with Fipra's Ukko Metsolo, who is married to Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas, a legal attache in the Maltese mission to the EU.

http://euobserver.com/9/30450