The revolving door rules and procedures which concern current and incoming staff who join the EU institutions are not robust. Article 11a of the Staff Regulations covers personal or private conflicts of interest for current staff although it seems to be a far from water-tight rule. The Commission has told CEO that Mr Westrup went through a standard selection process and that, under Article 11a and under his "own initiative", he emailed the human resources department of DG Energy to "discuss any potential conflicts of interest". They replied that "no such conflicts exist".
BusinessEurope represents major industry and business groups from across the EU and it has many interests in the work of the Commission including DG Enterprise, as well as in the specific work that Mårten Westrup was responsible for whilst he was at DG Enterprise. Fifty major companies “enjoy an important status within BusinessEurope” as they are (paying) members of BusinessEurope’s Corporate Advisory and Support Group. These include three car companies (Daimler, Hyundai, Toyota), plus a range of energy companies (Areva, BP Europe, Enel, ExxonMobil, GDF Suez and others). Source: BusinessEurope website: http://www.businesseurope.eu/content/default.asp?PageID=604 Viewed 4 July 2012.
During his time at BusinessEurope, Mr Westrup lobbied former colleagues at DG Enterprise on proposals for the emissions trading scheme.
In 2011 Mårten Westrup returned to the Commission (DG Energy) to work as a Policy Officer in the unit handling 'energy policy & monitoring of electricity, gas, coal and oil markets'. Since then, he has been quoted in the media regarding the Commission’s energy policy and specifically the important Energy 2050 Roadmap and that he has also been present at Commission meetings to discuss the Energy 2050 Roadmap. Source: Parliament.com. 24 November 2011. EU's energy roadmap criticised as 'overambitious'. http://www.theparliament.com/policy-focus/energy/energy-Article/newsArticle/eus-energy-roadmap-criticised-as-overambitious/ and information from Commission website, viewed 9 July 2012: http://ec.europa.eu/energy/energy2020/roadmap/doc/energy_roadmap2050_advisory_group_minutes_2011_12_12.pdf
More information is available in the ALTER-EU report: Block the revolving door - why we need to stop EU officials becoming lobbyists: http://www.alter-eu.org/revolving-doors
For more information on Mr Westrup's first move through the revolving door see: http://corporateeurope.org/revolvingdoorwatch/cases/m-rten-westrup
Update 18 August 2015: Westrup remains a DG Energy policy officer in the unit entitled energy policy coordination.
Update 18 November 2015: You can also read about 15 other energy/ climate/ environment-related revolving door stories in our November 2015 report: Brussels, big energy, and revolving doors: a hothouse for climate change.
"This is Mr Westrup's second spin through the revolving door. In recent years he has worked for DG Enterprise, BusinessEurope and now DG Energy and this has been pretty much unregulated by the Commission. When he moved to BusinessEurope he was considered exempt from the rules because he was contract staff. When he returned to the Commission it appears that there was no specific and proactive procedure for the Commission to follow to assess his revolving door move. We consider that the Commission should be proactive in scrutinising all new staff for possible conflicts of interest and that that would be an appropriate way to implement the current rules. Yet the Commission is not proactive in scrutinising staff in this way; instead it had to wait until Mr Westrup himself raised the issue. This case shows the urgent need to revamp the revolving door rules so that any risk of potential conflicts of interest with contract staff and / or those who join the EU institutions are fully investigated and regulated as soon as possible".