Former employer
DG Enterprise and Industry
Former function
Policy Officer, Food Industry Unit (for 3 years)
New function
Director of Consumer Information, Diet and Health
New employer
FoodDrinkEurope (Confederation of Food and Drink Industries of the EU)
Nationality
Spain
Policy area
Date of Revolving Door
Institutional reaction
"Ms Ortiz does not need an authorisation... Ms Ortiz has not had access to sensitive information during her time in the European Commission".
Other info
At the Commission, Ms. Ortiz worked to "ensure competitiveness of the industry by following legislative draft proposals from DG SANCO as well as feeding into the work of the High Level Group on the Competitiveness of the Agro-Food Industry and Forum for the Better Functioning Food Supply Chain". It is understood that Ms Ortiz has now left FoodDrinkEurope (March 2012). (Source: European Agenda).
“The Commission does not automatically apply revolving door rules to (temporary) contract staff unless they are deemed to have had access to “sensitive information”. This is a loophole, as exemplified by this case. Ms Ortiz worked on food industry matters within the Commission and is now in a very senior role at one of the largest food industry lobby groups in Europe. CEO considers that the revolving door rules should be equally applied to permanent and contract staff. CEO is awaiting responses to further access to document requests on this case but considers that a two year cooling off period would have been appropriate in this case, to prevent conflicts of interest."