The European Court of Auditors (ECA) criticized on Thursday the failure of European Union agencies to prevent the practice of so-called “revolving doors” (revolving doors), with the help of which some European officials, having left their positions in these agencies, participate in the Reuters, DPA and Agerpres agencies. on Thursday.

The EU has more than 40 specialized institutions in areas such as insurance, banking, medicine, border control, etc. Last year, these agencies had a total of around 14,500 employees, corresponding to around 17% of all European civil servants, and their combined budgets exceeded four billion euros.

“European regulations place very few obligations on EU bodies to monitor their current and former staff for revolving door conditions (practices),” the ECA report said.

“On the other hand, EU agencies, especially those with regulatory powers and links to industry, are at particular risk” as lobbying firms and business sectors seek to hire officials with insider contacts and information, thus putting called into question the integrity of European policies and spending, reports the European Chamber of Accounts.

It also notes that only nine EU agencies have specific internal rules on revolving door practices, while others have a “legislative vacuum” and there are no uniform rules on this for all EU agencies, unlike the case of the European Commission.

EU officials and lobbying organizations

But although the Commission has such rules, they did not prevent the emergence of situations of potential conflict of interest, as, for example, in the case of the former president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, who after leaving this position worked for the Goldman Sachs bank. or the former European Commissioner for Competition Neely Cruz, who is accused of lobbying the interests of the Uber company.

“Each time this happens, the reputation of the EU is damaged,” emphasizes European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly, who recalled that Eurosceptics used Barroso’s case in the Brexit campaign.

According to a report prepared in 2017 by Transparency International, approximately half of the European Commissioners until then and a third of the MEPs worked for lobbying structures in the EU after the end of their mandate.