15h16 – EU must change its culture of revolving doors and conflicts of interests, says our Belgian MEP
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14h10 – Full GUE/NGL statement on Sylvie Goulard
GOULARD’S REJECTION VICTORY FOR INTEGRITY IN EU
After a second round of hearings, the European Parliament has decided to reject French Commissioner-designate Sylvie Goulard for the Internal Market portfolio.
Her candidature was marred by controversy as she faces an investigation for fraud and stands accused of conflicts of interest during her time as MEP.
The Left succeeded in mobilising broad opposition to her confirmation that led to this decision. Furthermore, our MEPs have issued a wider call for reform of a system that is broken and has let Brussels officials off the hook when it comes to conflicts of interest and corporate capture.
Leading the fight for ethics and integrity in public office at the EU, the Left’s co-president Manon Aubry (France Insoumise, France) expressed hope that this is only the beginning of a wider push for change:
“We obviously did not vote for Goulard. EU citizens won’t put their trust in their institutions when a Commissioner sees absolutely no problem in making €10,000 a month from a private lobby in addition to her MEP salary.
“The care of Goulard has shown the inefficiency of the existing assessment procedure for conflicts of interest. This is why GUE/NGL is pushing for the creation of an independent ethics body to solve this problem for good.
“We want to bring ethics back to the EU. External remunerations, influence of lobbies, revolving doors, conflict of interest: all of this has to stop!”
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11h20 – GUE/NGL says “No” to unethical Commissioner-designate
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11h15 – Our MEPs have listened……
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10h22 – Bompard tells Goulard to quit
In his questioning of Sylvie Goulard, French MEP Manuel Bompard said:
“In an interview with Le Figaro in 2017, you said that the goal was to ‘restore confidence and regain a desire for Europe’. Do you really think that your appointment to one of the most important posts of the EU could contribute to it?”
“Try putting yourself in the place of those people who suffer daily from the consequences of fiscal austerity. Imagine them looking at an EU appointing a Commissioner who has received €12 000 a month to organise round tables and fill an agenda?”
“The only paper you have ever written for the Berggruen Institute was entitled ‘from an ethics of conviction to an ethics of responsibility’.
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10h13 – Coming up shortly…
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10h00 – “I do not believe I will be indicted”
Check out Manon Aubry’s Twitter thread on Goulard this morning.
Plenty of doubts remain….especially when Goulard had to say “I do not believe I will be indicted.”
Oh dear.
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09h43 – Plus ça change!
‘A leopard doesn’t change its spots’ … ‘It’s in one’s DNA’ … ‘Old habits die hard’…..
Any other appropriate expressions to describe Goulard you can think of?
Marc Botenga is tweeting and finds Goulard’s double-standards nauseating:
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09h05
Meanwhile, watch this as our group co-president Manon Aubry sets out the case in the European Parliament on why the EU needs a credible system to investigate conflicts of interest.
Plus her Twitter thread on the same subject….
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09h00
It’s D-Day for Sylvie Goulard….again.
Yes, the French nominee (and Macron ally) did so badly in her first audition that she is being dragged back to the European Parliament for a repeat interrogation by MEPs on the internal market committee.
Questions about her ethics (or lack of), integrity (or lack of) and second jobs will no doubt resurface as MEPs try to get to the bottom of her dodgy resumé.
No doubt her nomination is also something of a political game of football between the big political groups in the Parliament. But Left MEPs are above all that nonsense…they just want answers to questions that you care about….
