Brussels, 08/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 7 October, former Irish commissioner for the internal market from 2004 to 2010, Charlie McCreevy was forced to resign from the board of British banking firm NBNK Investments. For one year after their departure from the Commission, former commissioners are required to inform an independent ethics committee of any new positions they have been offered or are seeking. Deciding that there was a conflict of interests with his work at the Commission, where he was in charge of financial regulation, the ethics committee delivered its first unfavourable opinion. McCreevy is able, however, to retain his position on the board of Irish airline Ryanair, the committee having returned a favourable opinion in May. The Ethics Committee has often been criticised in the past, for example, when it allowed former fisheries commissioner Joe Borg to take up a position with a European lobby group in exchange for a promise that he would not deal with maritime affairs issues, or when it found no problem with former industry commissioner Günther Vedrheugen's joining the boards of public relations agency Fleishmann-Hillard and of Royal Bank of Scotland and Volksbanken-Raiffeisenbanken. A submission from Verheugen about the lobbying company he has formed, The European Experience Company, is still being considered by the Ethics Committee. The former German commissioner set up his company in April of this year but only informed the Commission on 1 September. (H.B./transl.rt)