MEP Damien Carême (Greens/EFA, France) on Thursday 8 April expressed his disappointment with the guidelines on the prevention and management of conflicts of interest under the Financial Regulation, published by the European Commission the day before (see EUROPE 12693/9).
The Greens MEP had complained to the European Ombudsman about the conflict of interest surrounding the contract awarded by the Commission to the American asset manager BlackRock to conduct a study on the integration of environmental and social factors in bank supervision (see EUROPE B 12609A26).
The Commission has not yet formally responded to the Ombudsman’s conclusions, but the MEP considers that these guidelines constitute a first element of an insufficient response.
“It is merely approbation that does not envisage anything concrete to improve the situation regarding conflicts of interest”, he said.
In his view, the Commission gives in particular restrictive interpretation of what constitutes a “conflict of interest situation likely to affect the performance of the contract” is too restrictive.
Damien Carême expects the Commission to propose as soon as possible a revision of the Financial Regulation and the Public Procurement Directive to remedy the shortcomings of the current rules. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)