Iskanje po preiskavah

The case concerned the decision of the European Investment Bank to approve a request made by a former vice-president and member of its Management Committee (MC) (the ‘former VP’) to become a non-executive board member of a Spanish energy utility company, which received loans from the EIB.

The complainants, two Members of the European Parliament, raised concerns that the move gave rise to the risk of conflicts of interest. The EIB argued that the former VP had not been involved in the negotiation and implementation of the financing agreements between the EIB and the company.

The Ombudsman found that, in approving the move, the EIB did not properly manage the risk of conflicts of interest to which the former VP’s request arguably gave rise. However, given the EIB has, in the meantime, made improvements to the relevant ethics rules to address these matters, the Ombudsman determined that no further inquiries were justified.

Nonetheless, the Ombudsman made suggestions for improvement with a view to strengthening how the EIB assesses ‘revolving door’ moves by members of its MC to the private sector, and how it ensures compliance where its Ethics and Compliance Committee authorises a move but applies conditions on the individual and their activities.

Pritožnik, organizacija civilne družbe, je izrazil pomisleke glede ocene trajnostnosti plinskih projektov v Energetski skupnosti, mednarodni organizaciji za sodelovanje na področju energije med EU ter državami Zahodnega Balkana in črnomorske regije. Za tovrstne projekte bi se lahko uporabili poenostavljeni postopki za izdajo dovoljenj in bi morali izpolnjevati merila iz uredbe EU o vseevropskih energetskih omrežjih (TEN-E), kot jo uporablja tudi Energetska skupnost.

Energetska skupnost ni organ EU in zato ni v pristojnosti evropske varuhinje človekovih pravic. Ker pa Evropska komisija zastopa EU v Energetski skupnosti, je varuhinja človekovih pravic prosila Komisijo, naj pojasni, kako zagotavlja ustrezno oceno trajnostnosti plinskih projektov in svojo vlogo v tem procesu.

V okviru te preiskave je Komisija predstavila tudi najnovejše informacije o svojih prizadevanjih za izboljšanje ocenjevanja trajnostnosti „projektov skupnega interesa“ EU na področju plina, kar je bilo predmet prejšnje preiskave varuhinje človekovih pravic.

Varuhinja človekovih pravic je menila, da so pojasnila Komisije zadovoljiva, in jo zaključila z ugotovitvijo, da ni bilo nepravilnosti.