On Wednesday 16 November, the College of Commissioners was due to discuss strengthening the Code of Conduct for its members but the discussion was postponed until next week due to a very heavy agenda on Wednesday, a Commission source told EUROPE.
The Commission will therefore discuss the Code of Conduct for Commissioners at its next weekly meeting, in Strasbourg on Tuesday 22 November.
In response to the wave of indignation that followed the recruitment of his predecessor to investment bank Goldman Sachs, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Saturday 5 November that he would like to strengthen the Code of Conduct for European Commissioners (see EUROPE 11662). Juncker would like to extend the so-called cooling-off period for Commission presidents from 18 months to three years, during which the former president must ask permission from his previous employer to join a private group. Juncker will put forward his proposals and the College will have to give its approval. He would also like an extension of the 'latency period' for normal commissioners from 18 months to 24 months.
Alter-EU wants to go much further. However, in the view of the Alter-EU organisation, which sent Juncker a letter on Tuesday 15 November, much greater ambition should be shown by extending the cooling off period from 18 months to three years for former commissioners and from 18 months to five years for former Commission presidents. Alter-EU also advocates banning former members of the College from any form of lobbying activity (for five years for former presidents and for three years for other former members of the College of Commissioners).
In addition, Alter-EU calls for a review of the definition of lobbying in the Code of Conduct for Commissioners, so as to cover both direct and indirect influencing activities. The organisation also supports replacing the Commission’s ad-hoc ethics committee with a permanent body that is professional, transparent and fully independent, equipped with investigatory and decision-making powers. Indeed, the fact that the ad-hoc ethics committee has had nothing further to say about the very controversial appointment of José Manuel Barroso to Goldman Sachs has raised considerable criticism about the effectiveness and use of this body (see EUROPE 11591). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)