Ethics standards in the EU administration
The EU institutions have a series of ethics rules designed to protect the integrity of the administration and ensure that citizens are served by independent and accountable civil servants.
The European Ombudsman helps monitor how these rules are implemented and where there is need for improvement. Over the years, the Ombudsman’s work has led to more robust ethics standards in the EU administration.
Revolving doors
EU officials moving to a related job in the private sector, known as revolving doors, has the potential to undermine public trust in the EU if not properly managed. Several Ombudsman inquiries in this area have raised awareness about the importance of ensuring that former officials cannot lobby their past colleagues. The Ombudsman continues to monitor this issue by looking into how institutions handle revolving doors in general and in specific cases.
Good practice guidelines for managing revolving doors in EU agencies
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One area of scrutiny was the approach to revolving doors by EU agencies, which help set regulatory standards across a range of policy areas including food safety, medicines, and banking. The Ombudsman produced a set of good practice guidelines to ensure consistency in how agencies manage the issue. The guidelines suggest agencies: - equip staff and board members with clear guidance, regular training, and ongoing awareness initiatives - have transparent criteria for restricting post-service or post-mandate roles - react swiftly when a move to the private sector is signaled - respond promptly if there are breaches of the imposed conditions |
Good practice guidelines for managing revolving doors in EU agencies
One area of scrutiny was the approach to revolving doors by EU agencies, which help set regulatory standards across a range of policy areas including food safety, medicines, and banking. The Ombudsman produced a set of good practice guidelines to ensure consistency in how agencies manage the issue.
The guidelines suggest agencies:
- equip staff and board members with clear guidance, regular training, and ongoing awareness initiatives
- have transparent criteria for restricting post-service or post-mandate roles
- react swiftly when a move to the private sector is signaled
- respond promptly if there are breaches of the imposed conditions
How the European Commission handles revolving doors
The Ombudsman has carried out several inquiries into how the European Commission handles revolving doors.
As a result, the Commission no longer allows staff on temporary leave to take up employment in areas where there is a conflict of interest risk. It also pledged to publish its annual overview of senior staff moves to the private sector faster than it used to, allowing for more effective public scrutiny of its decisions.
How the European Commission handles revolving doors
The Ombudsman has carried out several inquiries into how the European Commission handles revolving doors.
As a result, the Commission no longer allows staff on temporary leave to take up employment in areas where there is a conflict of interest risk. It also pledged to publish its annual overview of senior staff moves to the private sector faster than it used to, allowing for more effective public scrutiny of its decisions.
Conflicts of interest
Preventing and managing conflicts of interest is essential for ensuring an impartial EU administration and maintaining public trust in the EU institutions. Even a perceived conflict of interest can damage public trust and raise questions about whether decisions have been taken to further a special interest.
Experts advising the Commission
The conflict of interest policy for experts advising the Commission includes rules for processing experts’ declarations of interests and managing conflicts of interests. The Commission also publishes experts’ declarations of interests in its expert groups register.
The Commission implemented this policy following a suggestion from the Ombudsman.
Ombudsman oversight in this area also led to the Commission introducing several measures to ensure that independent experts evaluating project proposals for the European Defence Fund do not have any conflicts of interest. The measures include asking expert candidates to list family members with links to the defence industry and to outline their direct financial investments in defence companies.
Business trips by EU staff
To help prevent potential conflicts of interests, the Commission does not permit business trips taken by Commission staff to be paid by corporate interests. It presented this policy after the Ombudsman asked how it deals with the payment of travel expenses and hospitality by third parties.
In line with later suggestions from the Ombudsman, the Commission also now records the nature of other third parties paying for staff work trips and the costs borne by them, as well as its assessments of potential and perceived conflicts of interest.
Bidding on EU tenders
The EU law governing public procurement procedures financed by its budget has been updated to exclude bidders with professional conflicts of interest. The European Commission also updated its internal procurement guidelines to clarify to its staff that they should exclude these bidders.
The changes follow an Ombudsman inquiry into the Commission’s decision to award an investment management company a contract for a study in an area of business interest to it.
Code of Conduct
The European Commission strengthened the ethics and transparency rules governing commissioners’ activities, during and after their time in office.
The updated Code of Conduct requires more detailed financial interest declarations and longer cooling off periods for former commissioners (two years) and former commission presidents (three years). The Independent Ethical Committee’s opinions on commissioners’ post-mandate jobs are also now published.
The changes were welcomed by the Ombudsman and reflected suggestions she made in a series of inquiries.
Guidelines for taking part in elections
The European Commission drew up guidelines for commissioners wanting to participate in national elections.
The Ombudsman wrote to the Commission on this issue following a complaint concerning the presence of the Commission President and a Vice-President in a video supporting a national political party’s election campaign.
Ethics rules in the European Parliament
The Ombudsman, whose mandate covers the administrative actions of the European Parliament, provided input to the Parliament’s ethics reform plans in 2023
The rules now require Members of the European Parliament to publish all meetings organised with registered lobbyists and diplomatic representatives from non-EU countries.
Dealing with interest representatives
Do's and Don'ts
To help ensure public officials do not inadvertently breach ethical norms, the Ombudsman published a list of practical recommendations for interactions with interest representatives. The list of ‘Dos and Don’ts’ assists civil servants in distinguishing between lobbying that makes a genuine contribution to effective policy making and the exercise of undue influence.
EU Transparency Register improvements
The EU Transparency Register enables the public to follow the activities of interest representatives seeking to influence EU decision making. Registration is also a precondition for lobbyists to meet with representatives of the EU institutions.
Following an inquiry by the Ombudsman, the Transparency Register’s Secretariat strengthened how it carries out investigations into complaints alleging registered companies or organisations have breached the code of conduct. When conducting investigations, the Secretariat now actively seeks additional information from the entities concerned. It has also updated its guidelines for how registered entities should detail their affiliation with other companies or organisations.
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