Come As You Are

Transparency lessons with Barroso and Selmayr

José Manuel Barroso (The Guardian)

I usually complain about the TV programme on our national TV. Numerous reruns, old and outdated movies, accompanied by a poor informative programme, do not attract my attention very often. However, sometime ago I watched an interesting documentary called Inside Job. What looks like a typical Hollywoodesque movie, especially when it’s narrated by Matt Damon, turned out to be a quite interesting retrospective of the economic crisis of 2008, which started in the US and eventually affected the whole world.

One of the subjects numerously mentioned in the documentary is Goldman Sachs, the role of the whole company as well as the role of its representatives. Goldman Sachs is one of the biggest investment banks in the World, and is accused by many of being responsible for the economic crisis and woes that all of us suffered in the 2000s. However, with all of the negativities and events that happened in the recent past, the company remained a giant and did not hesitate to splash the cash and bring on board Jose Manuel Barroso, the former two-time President of the European Commission.

Jose Manuel Barroso was the President of the Commission in interesting times. During his mandate, he oversaw new treaties taking place, new members joining in, and the aforementioned crisis, which could basically be explained by the paradigm of the Greek bailout. After his 10-year spell at the Commission, people would expect that Mr. Barroso would do jobs that are regularly done by former statesman and high-level officials which are still too young to retire. These things are usually, but not only, connected to publishing memoirs, giving lectures throughout the world, giving consultancy, etc. However, Mr. Barroso decided to move into the world of lobbyism and joined Goldman Sachs, which was severely criticised by many, including his successor Jean-Claude Juncker, who told Barroso that in the future he would be received in the Commission as a lobbyist, not as a former boss.

Whatever you call Barroso nowadays, he stirred controversy last week with Jobs, Growth & Investment Commissioner Jyrki Katainen. The meeting was held last October in a hotel next to the Commission, and the info was released last week. Of course, average citizens will not know all the details of this meeting, as the info is pretty vague, but it is insulting for a human mind to defend this meeting as a beer/catching up with old friends. I’m pretty sure football was not one of the topics either.

Martin Selmayr (Politico)

Regarding the second lesson, it is the recent appointment of Martin Selmayr, the grey eminence of the European Commission, who is a regular part of the Brussels bubble gossip throughout media circles. Mr. Selmayr has been appointed as a Secretary General of the Commission. The fashion in which he was swiftly appointed is highly problematic, and has been criticised in many circles. The French press was extremely unhappy about it, and the iconic Liberation even wrote that his appointment is a breach of procedure, lacking the selection process. The “Monster of Berlaymont”, a man that is seen by some as the only one that can yell at Commissioners and call them all the time, is evidently a politically-backed official, and as such is now holding the highest-level civil servant position in the EU. I hope I do not need to clarify how problematic that is.

At the end of the day, we have learned something new. It is now evident that the EU needs more transparency in appointing high-level officials and dealing with former bosses that are now serving some other interests. New rules need to be established as soon as possible, otherwise the cases of Mr. Barroso and Mr. Selmayr can be yet another tool for anti-EU forces to spread their toxic rhetoric.