EU pressured to tighten rules on jobs for former commissioners

Tighten the code of conduct or your salaries could be frozen, a top European lawmaker has warned the European Commission after senior ex-officials landed plum jobs at banks, airlines and lobby firms.

Euro MPs and transparency watchdogs have voiced growing concern about a revolving door that has taken former commissioners to firms such as Ryanair and Royal Bank of Scotland shortly after leaving Brussels.

"The European Commission must present a new code of conduct as soon as possible," said conservative lawmaker Ingeborg Graessle, an influential member of the European parliament's budget committee.

She warned that the legislature could refuse to sign off on the EU budget or even freeze salaries of commissioners if no action was taken.

The parliament had given European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso until August to move on the matter, but he has not budged.

NGOs point their finger at the ethics committee that checks on potential conflicts of interest, after the panel saw nothing wrong with ex-commissioners who left in early 2010 take their Brussels experience to the private sector.

Former commissioners should be forced to wait two years before they can join the private sector, anti-corruption groups say.

"The current situation clearly shows that there is an urgent need" to tighten rules, said Paul De Clerck of the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation, a coalition of civil society groups, trade unions and academics.

Former commissioners have joined a wide range of firms, from banks to consultancies and insurers.

Malta's Joe Borg, who was commissioner for fishing and maritime affairs, now works at Finsbury International Policy & Regulatory Advisers (FIPRA), a Brussels-based consultancy active in his former portfolio.

Ireland's Charlie McCreevy, former commissioner for internal markets, joined the board of directors of low-cost airline Ryanair in May.

Guenter Verheugen of Germany, the former industry commissioner, was authorised in July to join lobby firm Fleishmann-Hillard, Royal Bank of Scotland and the German federation of cooperative banks.

But Verheugen forgot to notify Brussels, as required by the code of conduct, in April that he had created his own firm in Germany, the European Experience Company.

The company says on its website that it offers "management seminars for institutions and enterprises in cooperation with experts from European institutions." It also proposes "strategy recommendations" in the area of EU-policy.

Verheugen finally told the commission about his company on September 1 and indicated that it was not a lobbying firm, according to a source close to the matter.

De Clerck countered that the activities proposed by the European Experience Company "falls under what the commission defines as lobbying."

Pro-transparency groups want the ethics panel to refuse to give the green light to Verheugen's company.

But Graessle, the Euro MP, said it was "highly unlikely" that the committee would block it because in the past it has always accepted reassurances from ex-commissioners that they would stay away from activities linked to their former jobs.

In 2009, a European parliament study found several defficiencies in the code of conduct, including that commissioners were not required to regularly update their financial interests declarations or refuse travel invitations.

However, the commission believes that "the code of conduct works well," said spokesman Michael Mann.

"But we are studying ways to improve it," Mann said. A decision on the Verheugen case would be taken in the "coming weeks," he added.