Brussels (AFP) – Former European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso did not breach EU ethics rules but he was unwise to take a controversial job at US investment bank Goldman Sachs after leaving office, an EU panel said Monday.
Barroso headed the Commission, the EU’s powerful executive arm, from 2004 until 2014, emerging as a high-profile public figure with political and business connections worldwide which critics say he could use unfairly to Goldman’s advantage.
“On the basis of the information provided … there are not sufficient grounds to establish a violation of the duty of integrity and discretion” in Barroso working for Goldman Sachs, the EU’s Ad Hoc Ethical Committee said in a statement.
Barroso, however, had also “not shown the considerate judgement one may expect from someone having held the high office he occupied for so many years,” it said.
A Commission spokesman said: “We will now examine the panel ruling closely before taking any decision on further, appropriate steps.”
Stepping down, former Portuguese prime minister Barroso waited the compulsory 18 months before in July joining Goldman Sachs, widely blamed in Brussels for its role in the 2008 global crash and eurozone debt crisis.
The Commission said at the time Barroso had satisfied the “cooling-off” period but the uproar continued until European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly asked current president Jean-Claude Juncker to scrutinise the appointment further.
In a separate statement Monday, O’Reilly said she might consider another inquiry of her own after noting several shortcomings in the ad hoc committee’s work.
She said the committee had recognised that Barroso had caused “reputational damage” to the EU but then decided he was still not in breach of its code of the conduct.
It also appeared to examine only the letters exchanged between Juncker and Barroso and “there is no evidence, at least in the opinion, of any other relevant records being requested, received, or any interviews with relevant people undertaken.”
Combined with continued concern over Barroso’s new job, “the Ombudsman will now reflect on the next steps -– including a possible inquiry – she will take in relation to this important issue,” O’Reilly said.
– Juncker badly embarrassed –
Juncker has been badly embarrassed by the criticism of Barroso and the Commission’s apparent initial willingness to accept his move to Goldman Sachs, but he has insisted he opposed it all along.
“What did I say? I repeat: ‘No problem for him to take a job in a private bank — but not that one,” Juncker said last month.
He said he made the remarks “because Goldman Sachs was one of these outfits which contributed, wittingly or unwittingly, to the emergence of this enormous financial and economic crisis.”
Juncker also said he considered Barroso to be an “honest guy” and a “friend” but that he would no longer be received at the Commission with the courtesies due a former head but treated instead as a simple lobbyist.
Barroso says he has done nothing wrong and last month hit angrily back at his critics.
“Why don’t I have the right to work where I want, if it’s a legal entity? It’s not a drug cartel,” said Barroso.
When he was hired, Goldman Sachs said his job had “nothing to do with the outcome of the Brexit vote,” the shock June British decision to quit the EU.
At the time, the Commission said Barroso did not have to inform Juncker about the job because he had been through the cooling-off period and it was safe to assume he no longer had access to privileged information or influence.
It added he would still be bound by EU rules of professional secrecy.
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