Commissioners’ advisers come out of the shadows

Special advisers to EU commissioners will in future have to sign a declaration stating there is no conflict of interest in them taking up their post. The name of the advisers and their signed declaration will be published on the website of the commissioner they are advising.

The changes were outlined in a letter sent by Siim Kallas, the commissioner for administrative affairs, audit and anti-fraud, to Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), a group campaigning for transparency.

The developments follow publication last Friday (2 March) of a list of 55 special advisers to the commissioners in response to demands from CEO and the European Parliament for greater transparency.

Half of the advisers do not earn any money and those who are paid receive a maximum of €600 per day, said a Commission spokesman.

"I intend to make compulsory the adoption of the declaration of honour to be signed before taking up ­duties and it would be up to the special adviser to indicate if any changes occur," Kallas says in the letter.

He also refers in the ­letter to the case of Rolf Linkohr, a former MEP and a special adviser to Andris Piebalgs, commissioner for energy, who sits on the boards of two energy companies. While all special advisers were asked in January to provide assurances that their position posed no conflict of interest, "Mr Linkohr…did not provide such assurances by the deadline," the letter says. Linkohr’s contract was therefore terminated on 1 February.

Two other special advisers had their contracts terminated: Göran Färm, a special adviser to Margot Wallström, the commissioner for institutional relations and communication, became an MEP and Konstanina Akkelidou, special adviser to Markos Kyprianou, the health commissioner, was elected a member of parliament in Cyprus.

Franco Frattini, commissioner for justice, freedom and security, has the most special advisers, listing 11, all of whom are Italian. A spokesman said most of the advisers were people Frattini would contact "once or twice a year to consult on the phone" and that only one - Daniela Bas, an adviser on fundamental rights - was paid.

Olivier Hoedeman, research co-ordinator at CEO, welcomed the publication of the list. "It is a very positive move and the overwhelming majority of the 55 do not have a ­conflict of interest," Hoedeman said. He said that the wording of the declaration the advisers had to sign would be ­important to ­ensure that a correct ­definition for what constitutes a conflict of ­interest was established.

Hoedeman, however, queried the role of Etienne Davignon, a director on the board of Suez, the ­energy and utility company, as special adviser to Louis Michel, the development commissioner. A Commission spokesman said Davignon, himself a former commissioner, received no payment for his services and his role was to advise Michel on encouraging growth of the private sector in developing countries. "I don’t think there is any risk or threat of a conflict of ­interest in those two activities," he said.

Other notables on the list of advisers include Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, who is advising Jan Figel’, the commissioner for education. Olli Rehn, the enlargement commissioner, is being advised by Günter Burghardt, former EU ambassador to the US, on the western Balkans, among other issues. Alain Gillette, who applied in 2005 for the job of director of OLAF, the EU’s anti-fraud office, is advising Kallas on auditing matters and anti-fraud.

Eighteen commissioners listed advisers while the remaining nine commissioners do not have any. The list covers the period from 1 April 2006 to the end of this month when an updated list will be published.

• http://ec.europa.eu/ commission_barroso/pdf/special_advisers_fr.pdf

Barroso: climate group is not a propaganda panel

The President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso has insisted that a new group set up to advise him on energy and climate change is not a "propaganda panel" but will help formulate policy.

Barroso was speaking after the first meeting this week (6 March) of the group which will advise him on legislation arising out of January’s energy package and on ideas leading up to the G8 meeting in June.

He said that the 11 advisers were chosen because of their professional abilities and not nationality. He added: "This is not a panel of propaganda, this is a panel of the world’s top experts."

The group includes Carlo Rubbia, Italian Nobel prize winner for physics, who worked on a new type of nuclear energy reactor and has been involved in solar energy projects.

Nicholas Stern is an economic adviser to the UK government and was author of a report last year which warned of disastrous consequences if action was not taken on climate change.

Michael Zammit Cutajar, from Malta, previously headed the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Claude Mandil is the director of the International Energy Agency in Paris. Peter Sutherland, who was once Ireland’s European commissioner, is chairman of BP.

Barroso will meet the group again before a meeting of the leaders of the G8, the world’s eight most industrialised countries, in Heiligendamm, Germany, to discuss climate change. They will meet among themselves beforehand and may bring in advice from other experts, Barroso said.

A spokesman said none of the 11 advisers would be paid for their work, other than being reimbursed for travel expenses.

Barroso said after meeting the group this week that he was more convinced than ever of the need to set up a European Institute of Technology to help solve problems on energy security and climate change. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, who advises Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel on climate change, said it was important that Europe should not underplay what the US was doing in the field. "If we in Europe don’t do the innovative things the Americans maybe will leave us behind," he said.

Special advisers to EU commissioners will in future have to sign a declaration stating there is no conflict of interest in them taking up their post. The name of the advisers and their signed declaration will be published on the website of the commissioner they are advising.

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