The European Commission offers a comprehensive training package and requires mandatory declarations, but its procedures for dealing with revolving doors are flawed, the European Court of Auditors found on Monday 13 March.
A revolving door is when a person moves from a job in the civil service to a job related to that position, but in the private sector.
Overall, “we conclude that both the Commission and the Member States have made efforts to combat conflicts of interest, but that weaknesses remain, particularly in promoting transparency and identifying risk situations”, says the Court’s special report on conflicts of interest and EU agricultural and cohesion spending.
The European Ombudsman recently examined 100 decisions taken by the Commission between 2019 and 2021 concerning ‘revolving door’ situations. The Ombudsman noted some progress since their last enquiry, but still made several suggestions. One of them was for the Commission to temporarily prohibit former officials from accepting any job that would present a risk that could not be mitigated by properly monitored and enforced restrictions.
In the Member States, rules on revolving doors can also help to prevent conflicts of interest. Three of the four Member States audited by the Court of Auditors have legal provisions to limit this risk, Hungary being an exception. However, in Romania and Germany, the bodies involved in the management of EU funds do not check that staff members leaving their organisations comply with the rules applicable after leaving their posts.
In Malta, persons whose position includes regulatory or inspection functions are subject to the Directive on the Rules on Revolving Doors for Public Sector Employees. “However, the annex to the directive does not list employees of the authorities we audited as performing such functions, which means that they are not subject to the directive”, the auditors explain. In addition, an internal audit carried out in 2021 by the Romanian structural funds management authorities also identified weaknesses in measures to prevent conflicts of interest and revolving doors.
Furthermore, the auditors criticise the lack of protection measures for whistleblowers, and the delay in many Member States in transposing rules to protect whistleblowers who report violations of EU law.
Public sources (national and regional websites listing beneficiaries of EU funding in the fields of agriculture and cohesion) do not currently contain any information on final beneficiaries behind legal entities, which limits public control.
In the field of cohesion, this information is mandatory in the management and control systems of the EU27 for the new programming period (2021-2027). From 2023 onwards, recipients of agricultural funds will have to provide information on the enterprise groups in which they participate.
Finally, the auditors note that no public information is available on the extent of conflicts of interest in the shared management of EU spending (half of EU spending). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)