José Manuel Barroso’s role at bank caused serious public disquiet and called trust in EU into question, says ombudsmanAn EU watchdog has rebuked the European commission for failing to prevent potential lobbying by a former president who took a job at Goldman Sachs. O’Reilly called on the commission to refer Barroso’s appointment to its internal ethics committee, while raising questions about the independence of that body. Such a decision could at least have required the former president to refrain from lobbying the commission on behalf of the bank,” she said. He took a job at Goldman Sachs in July 2016, after an 18-month cooling-off period during which ex-officials are required to notify the commission of any new jobs and are banned from lobbying. The commission has been set a deadline of 6 June 2018 to make a formal response to the ombudsman.

Source: The Guardian March 15, 2018 13:33 UTC