On Tuesday, 7 March, European Commission Deputy Chief Spokesperson Dana Spinant indicated that “with immediate effect”, the European Commission had tightened its internal rules to “avoid any conflict of interest and any perception of conflict of interest” when a European official accepts the hospitality of a third party while travelling abroad (see EUROPE 13134/19).
From now on—following an analysis that is geared towards identifying a potential conflict of interest—members of the EU institution’s staff will only be able to accept a third-party organiser’s offer to pay their travel expenses and/or expenses relating to their stay for major international events, such as UN, G7, and G20 meetings; for official visits to an EU Member State or EFTA countries; or for academic speaking events at public or private universities.
In all other cases, the European Commission will cover the mission expenses.
Ms Spinant indicated that when the invitation concerns a director-general, he or she “should” refer the matter to the head of cabinet and the responsible European commissioner.
A specialised unit in the European Commission’s Human Resources department will be able to assist in the analysis to be conducted, which will be based on guidelines that contain the criteria for identifying potential conflicts of interest.
The ethics rules were toughened after Politico revealed last week that Director-General for [Mobility and] Transport Henrik Hololei had in recent years taken several flights to [and from] Doha that were paid for by Qatar or Qatari state-owned entities, including during the period when the European Commission was negotiating an aviation agreement with the emirate on behalf of the EU.
According to the European Commission, he is the only director-general in such a situation—the EU institution acknowledging the existence of “five missions” that are being disputed.
In a second phase, the European Commission will further revise its internal rules on its staff’s missions while taking the climate context into consideration. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)