Just when it
was mentioned in recent article
that “the current euro-circus, a Frankenstein creation consisted
of political puppets, corrupted politicians, technocrats, lobbyists
and bankers, has completely lost common sense”, as they keep
acting like there is nothing wrong with this creation, the former
head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, came to
contribute to this estimation.
From BBC
:
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France has called on the former head
of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, not to take up a
job advising US bank Goldman Sachs on Brexit. French Europe
Minister Harlem Desir called the move "scandalous" and
said it raised questions about the EU's conflict of interest
rules.
Ex-commissioners are free to take up
a new role 18 months after leaving. Despite accepting the job
after 20 months, Mr Barroso has come under fire for ignoring the
spirit of the rules.
Mr Desir drew attention to the
ill-timing of the job with Goldman Sachs. "It's a mistake
on the part of Mr Barroso and the worst disservice that a former
Commission president could do to the European project at a moment
in history when it needs to be supported and strengthened,"
he told the French parliament, referring to Europe's shock after
Britain voted to leave the EU on 23 June.
The bank hired Mr Barroso as an
adviser and non-executive chairman of its international business,
with a brief of advising the bank on the consequences of Brexit.
Mr Barroso has said he hopes to bring his EU experience to bear as
the bank's London operation deals with Britain's imminent
negotiation of withdrawal from the EU. In his new role, Mr
Barroso will be able to draw on his intimate knowledge of the EU
and have access to many officials and politicians he worked with
at the European Commission.
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Recall that
the Barroso administration has been awarded with the "golden medal" in serving interests
by the Corporate Europe Observatory. Also, Barroso's former advisor
Philippe Legrain revealed
to the Greek Truth Commission for Public Debt, that the refusal of
ECB's previous president, Jean-Claude Trichet, to consider any
potential restructuring of Greek debt in 2010, was aimed solely at
rescuing certain French and German banks which were particularly
exposed to Greek debt.
The reaction
of the French officials, shows some slow reflexes by the EU, which
probably starts to realize that the euroship is going straight to the
iceberg. However, it is probably too late, considering that the
euro-circus as a whole continues to behave as if there is nothing
wrong in the way that operates.
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