Corporate Europe Observatory

In the complaint, CEO accuses the Commission of secrecy, selective release of documents and failure to fulfill its obligations under EU transparency legislation (Regulation 1049/2001).

The longer term effects of the revolving door between public officials and private sector lobbyists have been graphically illustrated in the wake of the Dalligate lobby scandal, in the case of Michel Petite. Five years on, Petite represents the legal interests of corporate clients to the Commission. Aside from the nutty Commission decision to reappoint him as an ethical adviser on the revolving door, the Petite case illustrates that the upper echelons of political power at the European Commission still don't take the problem of the revolving-door seriously. The EU is seriously lagging behind our neighbours across the Atlantic, in the U.S. and Canada.

Behind a de-regulated financial sector and pro-banking policy decisions, there lies the story of an intimate relationship between the financial sector and the EU institutions. The revolving door phenomenon, which creates a web of interplaying interests between the lobbyists and the lobbied, as one smoothly transitions into the other, is a significant part of this picture.

After repeated freedom of information requests, the European Commission has released two hitherto unknown emails while maintaining its refusal to grant access to other key documents related to the resignation of Mr Dalli. The now released emails between EC Secretary General Catherine Day and Swedish Match had not been included in the Commission’s answers to a long list of MEP questions on Mr Dalli’s resignation to the Commission and OLAF.

Transparency, public health and tobacco control NGOs have today written to EU Commission President Barroso to complain about Commission officials having undisclosed meetings with tobacco lobbyists, in violation of UN rules. The undisclosed meetings are particularly controversial in the context of the Dalligate tobacco lobbying scandal, which led to the resignation of Commissioner Dalli under unclear and contested circumstances.