Former EU commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos held conferences with EU fee vice-presidents at a time when he was being paid by Struggle Impunity, an NGO linked to the Qatari corruption allegations.
In a press release on Tuesday (20 December), the European Fee mentioned his current conferences held between Vera Jourova and Johannes Hahn have been of a “non-public nature”.
-
He met with 9 EU commissioners whereas on the Struggle Impunity payroll (Picture: Avramopoulos)
However Avramopoulos additionally held meetings with commission vice-presidents in November 2021, earlier than the tip of his two-year ‘cooling-off’ interval on 1 December 2021.
The interval bans him from lobbying European Commissioners on behalf of the NGO on issues for which he was accountable throughout his mandate.
And conferences referring to EU coverage can solely happen if lobbyists are within the EU transparency register, a web based database of particular curiosity teams.
Struggle Impunity was not in that register.
However a fee spokesperson mentioned there may be additionally no normal ban on Avramopoulos assembly commissioners or their workers.
The query was posed as a result of the president of Struggle Impunity, Italian ex-socialist MEP Antonio Panzeri, is at present in jail alongside along with his former parliamentary assistant, Francesco Giorgi.
Their alleged corruption scandal additionally reportedly spans Morocco affect peddling.
Avramopoulos served as EU residence affairs commissioner from 2014 to 2019 and handled points like migration and safety.
He sat on the board of Struggle Impunity together with former EU overseas coverage chief Federica Mogherini, former French prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve, Italian senator Emma Bonino and former MEP Cecilia Wikström. He mentioned his position was fully with out government or administration tasks.
“For my participation and the compensation that might accompany it, I requested the approval of the European Fee, which was given to me in writing by president [Ursula] von der Leyen”, he mentioned.
Italian newspaper La Stampa revealed Struggle Impunity paid him €60,000 for his work between February 2021 and February 2022.
Throughout that point he held conferences with 9 EU commissioners.
“Go to to Brussels and conferences with good pals and colleagues from @EU_Commission,” he mentioned, in Tweet on November 2021.
The tweet exhibits pictures of himself together with European Commissioners, both standing in an workplace or by EU flags.
This contains government vice-president Frans Timmermans and Margrethe Vestager, in addition to vice-presidents Maroš Šefčovič, Věra Jourová, Margaritis Schinas, and commissioners Stella Kyriakides, Mariya Gabriel, Ylva Johansson and Johannes Hahn.
Stella Kyriakides mentioned they mentioned the Covid-19 pandemic.
It’s unclear what different topics have been mentioned.
In July, he tweeted one other picture of himself on vacation in Greece with EU funds commissioner, Johannes Hahn.
And in October, he tweeted he had dinner with EU transparency commissioner, Věra Jourová.
The revelations additionally come at a time when Avramopoulos is vying to turn into the subsequent EU particular consultant for relations with the Gulf international locations.
Avramopoulos has since accused folks in Italy of making an attempt to distort his picture over Struggle Impunity with a view to weaken his possibilities of touchdown the job. Different contenders embrace former Slovak overseas minister Jan Kubiš, former Italian overseas minister Luigi Di Maio, and former Cypriot commissioner Markos Kyprianou.
#europeannews #european_news
