With Brussels-based lobbying and consultancy firms continuously recruiting from the ranks of ex-commissioners and commission officials, the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) has urged Inter-institutional Relations and Administration Commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, to introduce new rules as part of the ongoing review of staff regulations designed to end what it describes as the ‘revolving door’ of private sector recruitment from the ranks of the commission, often from departments directly related to those firms’ lobbying activities.
According to a new ALTER-EU report, Block the Revolving Door: Why We Need to Stop EU Officials Becoming Lobbyists, the revolving door “appears to link the EU institutions directly to the private sector, allowing employees to move almost effortlessly between the two – is at the heart of the close relationship between the EU institutions and Brussels’ lobby industry”.