Articles

One of the remarkable aspects of Barroso’s decisions on the portfolios of the new Commission team is that all 13 current Commissioners that continue in Barroso-II will get a new portfolio. The logic behind these transfers is not always exactly clear and in some cases Barroso’s choices are very worrying. Take the example of Janez Potočnik who after five years as Research Commissioner is now proposed as new Environment Commissioner.

Media reactions to Commission President Barroso’s decisions on the division of portfolios over the 26 candidate Commissioners have concentrated on who got key portfolios, like Michel Barnier getting the internal market job, which includes the politically hot financial services dossier. What seems to have gone unnoticed so far, is the lack of clarity over who will take over political responsibility for the next phase of the European Transparency Initiative.

In the last few weeks, CEO has tried in vain to access the European Parliament's Register of Intergroups. After numerous phone-calls and fruitless email correspondence, we raised the white flag and wrote a complaint letter to the Parliament's Quaestors instead. Our failed search for the register reveals an unacceptable lack of transparency.

Channel 4's documentary Dispatches yesterday revealed a document showing that former EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson (2004-2008) personally signed the decision to lift import tariffs for Rusal, the aluminum giant owned by Lord Mandelson's close friend Oleg Deripaska.

Commission President Barroso surprised many with his early announcement on Friday afternoon of the portfolios for the 13 new candidate Commissioners and the 13 current Commissioners who will continue in Barroso-2.

According to eFinancialCareers "it emerged yesterday that the Alternative Investment Management Association is paying Finsbury €1m to lobby against the EU’s Alternative Investment Fund Managers’ Directive."

When BusinessEurope gathered together the Brussels' business world to discuss climate change, protecting economic growth was high on the agenda. But not everyone attending the conference thought that the business community were the right people to come up with the solutions to the climate crisis. Watch what happened on CEO TV - and see what the business delegates are asking for. Trailer: Climate Business (trailer) Full documentary (29 minutes in HD):