Study on regulating EU conflicts of interest flawed, says ALTER-EU

The Alliance for Lobby Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) is disappointed with the European Commission’s Communication on “Enhancing the Environment for Professional Ethics in the Commission” launched yesterday. The Communication does not formulate clear policies and measures against conflicts of interests of public office holders or cases of “revolving doors”, when former senior Commission staff start to work as lobbyists. ALTER-EU welcomes measures that would help officials identify situations of actual or potential conflict, as well as the announcement that rules regarding outside activities and provisions dealing with officials who have left the service will be revised. However, the Communication does not specify what kind of rules the Commission is planning to introduce.