Barroso told to reassign his shipping portfolios

By Martin Banks

Date: 04/05/05

José Manuel Barroso has been urged to reassign certain legislative dossiers in order to avoid potential conflict of interest.

The move comes in the wake of the European Commission president's admission that he had a weeklong holiday last August, before he took up his post, on a boat belonging to a Greek shipping magnate, Spiro Latsis. Latsis is an old friend of the Commission president.

But Barroso, who did not pay for the holiday, has rejected claims he may have compromised his impartiality by accepting the holiday.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, joint leader of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, has written to Barroso saying that while his private contacts are his own business, commissioners must avoid giving the impression of any potential conflicts of interest.

In the letter, he writes: "Taking into account that you took over certain shipping and maritime portfolios from Competition Commissioner Nellie Kroes as a result of her connections to the shipping industry, we suggest that you reassign the dossiers to Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot to avoid any potential misunderstandings. We also demand that Barrot presents an overview of the dossiers in question as well as of the associated decisions taken so far by your Commission."

Barroso has so far taken on a handful of shipping and maritime dossiers from Kroes, including the renewal of the block exemption regulation for liner shipping consortia in the field of maritime cargo and the review of the block exemption regulation for liner shipping conferences.

These were transferred to Barroso because Kroes was previously a member of the board of P&O Nedlloyd.

A spokesman for Kroes confirmed that the Commission president would respond to Cohn-Bendit's letter "in due course".

A Commission source, however, said that even if Barroso did transfer the shipping and maritime dossiers, they were unlikely to go to Barrot.

"It would be illogical to transfer them to Barrot given that it is essentially his role to defend the shipping industry," the official said.

The 36-strong Eurosceptic Independence and Democracy (ID) group will table a motion of censure against Barroso during next week's plenary in Strasbourg.

It was joint ID leader Nigel Farage who asked two months ago whether Barroso and any of the members of his Commission team had received hospitality as holiday guests.

The ID group says Barroso's written response to Farage came only on the day newspapers carried some details of his holiday.

In a subsequent letter to Parliament's President, Josep Borrell, Barroso wrote that he had "at all times" respected the Commission rules.

In the 22 April letter he said: "The fact that commissioners' friends and acquaintances may be affected by Commission policy does not in itself represent a conflict of interest."

The ID group, however, says Barroso should have been made to appear before next week's plenary to explain his position.

Commissioners have to abide by a code of conduct but Farage says the fact that they police themselves on possible conflict of interest cases remains unsatisfactory.

There is little prospect of the ID censure motion succeeding, although some UK Conservative MEPs will also back it.

Article reports that European Commission President José Manuel Barroso was urged to reassign certain legislative dossiers in order to avoid potential conflict of interest. The move came in the wake of Barroso's admission that he had a weeklong holiday in August 2004, before he took up his post, on a boat belonging to a Greek shipping magnate, his old friend Spiro Latsis. In a letter to Barroso, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, joint leader of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, urged him to reassign dossiers concerning competition in the shipping industry to Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot to avoid any potential misunderstandings.