Brussels BBQ, with commissioners as the meat

BONJOUR. When I started working in Brussels, one warm sunny day (yes, it happened!) my very knowledgeable colleague Jacopo Barigazzi offered me a tour of the European Quarter and told me the story of how houses from the Art Nouveau era were destroyed to make way for the EU’s new power structures, mostly made of post-war concrete.
Mirror, mirror. I’m not going to write an urban essay here, because we have another great newsletter for that, but something that struck me during that tour was that most of the EU action now happens behind glass façades. It’s a material has properties that allow for complete transparency — or opacity when polished like a mirror. And that’s quite the metaphor for what’s supposed to happen versus what we get.
Guess what. This week, I asked all 26 incoming commissioners to share their declarations of interest — which will all be made public (eventually) after the Parliament’s JURI committee screens them. I got only one positive answer, from Woepke Hoesktra. And so I was left alone with my own reflection(s).
“It’s just a mise en scène,” said a lawmaker I met this week while he was sipping his beer, asking to remain off the record as he added there are no means to achieve effective transparency and that we should all stop pretending to care (despite his party holding a very different line). The architectural lesson I learned from that is that you can add as many layers of glass as you want, but the brutalist culture and mirrors are here to stay.
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Today we’re talking about:
— What we found in the prospective commissioners’ 26 declarations of interest
— Old friendships die hard for MEP Zdechovský
FIRE UP THE GRILL. As we prepare for BBQ season (commissioners being roasted by lawmakers between November 4 and 12), MEPs have decided to go meta and criticize the whole process of spotting if the Commission’s top bosses are fit for their role or if they are too conflicted for the public good. The main complaint: the (lack of) actual means to do their job properly. And it’s starting to look like an epic battle in which the European People’s Party is isolated, sources who were in the room when background checks were discussed this morning told us (more on this in tomorrow’s Transition Playbook). 
Wait, what’s going on? Lawmakers from the Parliament’s JURI committee have the power to reject a candidate for commissioner if a major conflict of interest is found in their declaration. But JURI members only had three days before a meeting on Thursday morning to screen hundreds of pages of declarations provided by the commissioners themselves — in a process so opaque there’s little room for real scrutiny. Fortunately, we got hold of them!
Short teaser: We found, for example, that the Greek commissioner owns a lot of land; that even those commissioners in charge of transparency matters don’t necessarily provide much information about their situation; and that some commissioners have had flourishing consultancies. Our story here.
Pushing for more. As you receive this newsletter, far-left MEP Manon Aubry has just finished holding a press conference to criticize the way the EU deals with conflicts of interest. And she found a surprising ally in centrist Pascal Canfin, who told us over the phone how shocked he was by the whole process. Both have been asking during the past mandate for the creation of a serious regulator inspired by France’s high authority for transparency in public life. 
The quote: “What strikes me is not so much that these declarations are long but that they are empty,” Canfin said. “We need to change the system so that an outside party does the assessment. Since it’s parliamentarians or commissioners themselves who are doing the analysis, there are political games being played all over the place.”
Why is everybody so angry? Although recent EU history has shown that corruption sometimes still happens with actual bags of cash, most of the time the problematic influence schemes that create distrust in public institutions take place in the old boring way: a politician makes a decision that is later rewarded with a job, shares or investments in a public or private organization, in a way that is profitable for them or their relatives. 
Defining a conflict of interest is not that hard: The EU’s many laws and ethical framework give an extensive definition of this concept. Put simply, if you break the rules you have chosen to put your own interests first, when your mandate means you’re supposed to represent ours.
But finding conflict of interest is harder. As we went through hundreds of pages of declarations, it appears almost impossible to properly screen if something’s wrong because, well, the process doesn’t really allow it. Here’s why:
1. Declarations are not homogeneous: On paper, the declarations have to include, for example, information from the past decade related to previous employers, details about shares in companies and other assets, and involvement with think tanks, political parties or NGOs. The declarations also apply to partners and children (but not other family members). But the rules are quite flexible as commissioners may choose not to fill in certain answers if they consider there’s no conflict of interest.
2. Nobody checks if it’s true. Whether MEPs go beyond what’s written and do additional research is up to each individual lawmaker. While they can look for publicly available information, ask candidates for more details or even call them in for questioning, JURI members don’t have the power to fully investigate or demand private documents. And it takes expertise and resources to prove the existence of a complex kickback scheme.
3. Judges are parties, literally. What might constitute a conflict of interest is also affected by parliamentary politics: some political groups decide not to raise questions about a commissioner from an opposition group in exchange for a free pass for their own group’s commissioner. Negotiations are not held in public and the declarations are kept secret during the whole process.
“This is a deeply flawed process, devoid of transparency, where the rules prevent meaningful scrutiny of these declarations,” said Nicholas Aiossa, the director of Transparency International EU.
OLD FRIENDSHIPS DIE HARD, EPISODE II. A reader was kind enough to forward us the invite sent by EPP MEP Tomáš Zdechovský to his fellow lawmakers for a conference titled “EU-Kazakhstan Strategic Partnership: Opening up New Niches and Dimensions,” which took place yesterday in the premises of the European Parliament.
The pitch: “With Kazakhstan’s abundant natural resources and strategic position as a gateway to Central Asia, this event will serve as a timely opportunity to explore new dimensions of collaboration, particularly in the spheres of trade, investment, and energy,” Zdechovský writes in his invite, just under big EPP and Kazakhstan logos.
Guests and friends: According to the program, outgoing agriculture commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski was attending for the opening remarks, as were EEAS officials. 
If it looks like a duck. The Parliament has had a long tradition of engaging with non-EU countries with whom the bloc shares interests through so-called friendship groups. They have been a key way for governments and lobbyists to wine and dine sympathetic lawmakers. But after the Qatargate scandal revealed that they had also been a way for foreign actors to influence MEPs, banning these groups for non-EU countries was one of the Parliament’s top ethics reforms. 
By the book. Under new rules, MEPs can’t create friendship groups for countries that already have an official parliamentary delegation responsible for them. MEPs have been encouraged to refuse any gifts above a certain amount and have to declare them, among with any free trips they’ve been offered.
Mr. Worldwide. Zdechovsky has had a strong foothold in many friendship groups and showed through his invites that he has had many friends. He was invited to the Maldives in 2018. To India in 2019. He was part of a trip to Islamabad over the privileged GSP+ status granted to Pakistan in 2021. In 2022, he was part of an undeclared visit to Bahrain, a Guardian investigation found. In 2022 and 2023, he regularly met with Pakistani officials and even went to Turkmenistan. Oh and in 2024, he was thanked by a Sri Lankan official for his leadership in what really looked, again, like a friendship group.
Right of reply: Contacted, Zdechovský said the event “was organized on my own initiative as part of my role as the former chair and current member of the Delegation for Relations with Central Asia … All necessary bodies within the European Parliament, including the Quaestors Secretariat, were informed of the event well in advance.No compensation, financial or otherwise, was received by myself, my team, or anyone involved from the European Parliament in connection with this event or any related activities.”
LEGAL ADVICE PERMITTED: The General Court ruled that EU sanctions against Russia don’t prevent the Russian government or Russian companies from getting legal representation for any EU “judicial, administrative or arbitral proceedings,” my colleague Aoife White writes in to report. It cited the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights on guaranteeing the right to be advised or represented by a lawyer for existing or probable litigation. It also stressed that legal advice to individuals isn’t covered by the ban on providing services to Russian companies. The cases (T-797/22, T-798/22 and T-828/22) were brought by several lawyers associations from France, Belgium and more.
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CONSULTANCY
FGS Global announced the acquisition of Dutch public affairs consultancy Hague Corporate Affairs. 
Raphaëlle Arino has been promoted to associate director of FGS Global.
FTI Consulting appointed Robrecht Vandormael as head of their Brussels financial services practice. He takes over from Thea Utoft Høj Jensen who is going to assume the role of director-general for Insurance Europe on November 4.
The Society of European Affairs Professionals (SEAP) has a new board for the upcoming three-year term 2024-2027, including Marco Baldoli (Kellen Europe), Emma Brown (CropLife Europe), Berislav Čižmek (CBBS), Natacha Clarac (Athenora), Yiannis Korkovelos (Philip Morris International), Pierre Laffont (France Industrie), Roxana Moldovan (RedFlag), and Kim Watts (AmChamEU). The new president will be elected in about two weeks during the first meeting of the new board.
Erika Ebers, account director at Weber Shandwick, becomes associate director at Milltown Partners where she will work on tech matters.
EU INSTITUTIONS
Júlia Tősér has begun working as policy officer at the European Commission’s DG TRADE. She was previously head of sector of FDI Screening.
Katia Lacasse, senior advisor at Cefic, has been appointed industry vice chair of the European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing.
Emanuele Tarantino, economics professor at Rome’s Luiss University, will be the European Commission’s new chief competition economist. 
Matteo Albania is a new communication adviser in the ECR group at the Committee of the Regions.
THINK TANKS
Ognjenka Manojlović, formerly Vice President for International Public Affairs et Edelman has joined Brussels-based think tank International Center for Future Generations as Senior Public Affairs Director.
NGOs
Laurens Hoedemaker has been appointed president of the European Federation for Hunting and Conservation.
DIPLOMACY
Ambassador Juraj Nociar assumed the position of Permanent Representative of the Slovak Republic to the EU. He previously served as head of Cabinet of Slovakia´s EU Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič.
ENERGY
Valentin Calfa has been promoted to EU public affairs manager at the European Renewable Gas Registry. 
MOBILITY
After six years as head of Ericsson’s European Affairs Office, Karl Piel is now heading the Volvo Group’s EU representation in Brussels. 
Un grand merci à: Max Griera, Aoife White, Šejla Ahmatović, my editor Paul Dallison and Nico and The Velvet Underground.
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