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By ELISA BRAUN
Tips, tales, traumas to @elisabraun or influence@politico.eu | View in your browser
BONJOUR everyone. In a period of only three months (and one day), four major power shifts are taking place. British voters head to the polls today — bookended by the French election rounds — and while we are still processing the EU election and top jobs chess games, U.S. voters across the pond are ramping up for November 5. While all the attention (and sometimes anxiety) is pinpointed on the big names who will ultimately win or lose, it’s also the massive transfer season for many staffers from public administrations to their new jobs.
Hunger games, sort of. While scores of staffers will be preparing to turn the page and move on to the private sector, others will be betting the house to keep a hot seat when the keys change hands. Of course, this always runs the risk of launching into brutal unemployment once all the peachy offers have been snapped up. Prepare to see a round of LinkedIn statuses announcing “some personal news,” asking that you “stay tuned” for an “exciting project” coming soon.
Hiring the belle of the ball is an opportunity for consultancies and big firms to flex some muscles and send a message to potential clients and competitors about their rizz, but three magic words can ruin the fun and open the danger zone portal: conflict of interest.
The first scandal of the season erupted last week, leaving sustainability advocates reeling. Though don’t fear: any questionable unions regulators may miss, EU ombudsman Emily O’Reilly — and of course, our dear readers — are keeping a watchful eye on.
Today we’re talking about:
— A free pass for lawyers in the revolving door season? Not under the Ombudsman’s watch
— EU Green Deal architect’s new job in gas company leaves sustainable actors in shock
— French ethics body’s Macron-shaped migraine
LAW FIRMS AND COMPETITION OFFICIALS, BEHAVE, SAYS EU OMBUDSMAN
WATCH THOSE REVOLVING DOORS: The European Commission must take tougher action to prevent officials from taking valuable intel with them when they quit for law firms, European Union Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly told my colleague Edith Hancock.
Oh no they wouldn’t! O’Reilly — the closest thing to the EU institutions’ ethics police — said the competition department of the Commission (DG COMP) risks conflicts of interest when it doesn’t set clear guardrails on what senior officials will use in their new roles. Officials could potentially pass valuable trade intel from their previous work to their new employer that would advantage them as they battle merger reviews or antitrust probes.
A bit too happy: Law firms greet their hires of former officials with “unabashed enthusiasm and joy” even “mak[ing] a point of detailing the work that they did,” O’Reilly told my colleagues. Competition officials are “particularly vulnerable” to being poached by Big Law, she said.
A little history here: Several senior staffers in the antitrust division have migrated to law firms and consultancies in recent years. Nicholas Banasevic, a former tech antitrust official, became Microsoft’s vice president for competition and regulation this week. Latham & Watkins hired Carles Esteva Mosso, a former deputy director general for state aid and mergers in 2021. DG COMP transport director Henrik Morch moved to law firm Paul Weiss, prompting the firm to publish a press release announcing its new hire as a “tremendous asset to our clients.” O’Reilly said that kind of open fanfare is problematic, and sent a fiery letter the Commission over its refusal to share details on the transfer.
What the commission says about the rules: Commission spokesperson Lea Zuber told my colleagues that the EU executive arm “has adequate and effective procedures in place to safeguard the general interest and preserve the rights of staff members,” and that “trust is the underlying principle of the relationship between the Commission and its staff, including former staff.” Commission staff must get permission to carry out new activities in the two years after they leave and this can be refused for certain roles. Senior officials are also banned from lobbying their former institution for one year on issues they oversaw in their last three years in office.
But, but, but: O’Reilly countered that those restrictions are not easy to monitor, and officials could still offer advice to problematic clients without working directly for them. “They could just sit in a room and, you know, talk to people and tell them what they know,” she said. “People think it’s only when you act on a conflict that it’s a conflict,” she said, “but actually, if there is a perception there that there is a conflict, then it is a conflict.” Read her interview with Edith here.
EU GREEN DEAL ARCHITECTS IN GAS WORLD RAISES EYEBROWS
PERCEPTION, WE SAID. If there is one case on which the issue of perception of conflict of interest was beautifully demonstrated, it is the one of Diederik Samsom, who helped mastermind the EU’s landmark Green Deal and joined a gas firm without obtaining formal permission first, as our colleagues Victor Jack, Karl Mathiesen and Sarah Wheaton report.
The problem: a lobbying register showed he met with his new employer Gasunie several times during his time at the European Commission. The NGO-run LobbyFacts database shows Samsom directly met with the company three times since 2022, when he worked for EU Green Deal chief Frans Timmermans as head of Cabinet, a powerful role where he helped shape legislation for the climate package.
For transparency campaigners, that’s a clear conflict of interest.“His new employer has really huge commercial interests in the very same sector Samsom has helped to regulate for years,” said Belén Balanyá, a climate justice campaigner at the Corporate Europe Observatory NGO. “It’s scandalous,” said a spokesperson for the NGO Greenpeace. “If the Commission allows this [job] to go ahead, it will yet again expose the massive vulnerability of EU climate and energy policy to fossil fuel industry influence.”
Samsom and Gasunie deny wrongdoing. “I was approached for the role of chair of the supervisory board of Gasunie after I had stepped down as the Head of Cabinet of the … Climate Commissioner,” Samson said, adding he would abide by the Commission rules on staff regulation. “Mr. Samsom will have a non-executive supervisory role in the Supervisory Board of Gasunie,” a spokesperson for the company said. “The Supervisory Board has no role in Gasunie’s public affairs, as this falls under the responsibility of the Executive Board.”
Wait and see. A spokesperson told POLITICO that “the Commission is now carrying out the analysis on whether there is any real, potential or perceived conflict of interests, based on his past responsibilities, activities and contacts and his new ones. It is therefore premature to speculate on the outcome of this assessment.”
SEND A SWEAT TOWEL TO THE FRENCH ETHICS REGULATOR URGENTLY
HEATING TEMPERATURES. Macron’s decision to call for snap elections in France will generate 3,000 additional declarations to be analyzed by the high authority for transparency in public life (HATVP), or France’s ethics body, my colleague Judith Chetrit found out. And it’s going to be hot — but not in a sexy way — one staffer she talked to said.
Natural headache. “Since its creation, the HATVP activity has never been so affected,” a spokesperson told POLITICO. In the very likely event of a government reshuffle after the second legislative election round on Sunday, the HATVP will have to analyze interests declarations of incoming ministers and manage the job transfers of numerous advisors. A 15-people-strong team is behind the effort, and has 15 days to make it.
Summer body ready. The authority already has more than 4,000 documents to analyze, the spokesperson said. “Our entire monitoring plan will have to evolve to focus on the most ‘sensitive’ profiles, to the detriment of other groups,” he added.
“Hey, how have you been.” In the ranks of big PR consultancies like Havas and Publicis, as well as smaller boutiques like Taddeo, Vae Solis and Image 7, executives have received a flurry of applications and text messages for “a coffee” or “an update on what’s next,” my colleague Paul de Villepin reports. These agencies, already populated with former MPs, advisers and senior civil servants, are the natural way out for ministerial staff.
SHEIN EMBARKS ON EU CHARM OFFENSIVE
SUMMER GLOW-UP. Shein, the e-commerce app known for selling cheap clothes from China, is launching a charm offensive with European regulators to prevent concerns on dumping practices, forced labor and environmental pollution from impeding its continued ascent, my colleague Clothilde Goujard, Antonia Zimmerman and Marianne Gros report.
European tour. Executive Chairman Donald Tang is on a “fact-finding” mission “to understand people’s concerns and for us to share more about [our] business model,” he told POLITICO in an interview. Tang visited Paris and London last week and met with EU officials this week, including the Commission’s head of digital policy, Roberto Viola, on his first official trip to Brussels. He’s headed for Munich, Milan and Zurich next.
Why now? The lobbying push comes as Chinese companies have found themselves in the crosshairs of escalating geopolitical tensions, facing growing scrutiny from consumers, regulators and Western politicians. Founded in 2012 in China, Shein relocated to Singapore in 2021. It slowly took Europe by storm, selling many clothing items for well under €10 and outselling Europe’s Zara and H&M.
The China issue. Shein sought to go public in the United States, but a major lobbying push in Washington failed to assuage Washington’s distrust of its ties to Beijing and fears around its use of forced Uyghur labor. Amid fading prospects, Shein in June moved closer to filing in the old continent, in London.
Beyond its connections to China, Tang is trying to calm concerns about a flurry of other criticisms from its environmental impact, unsafe products with harmful levels of chemicals and intellectual property theft at a time when Brussels is sharpening its rules around consumer protection, the environment and tech.
The message? An attempt to reframe the company from a fast-fashion e-commerce platform to an “on-demand fashion brand,” aided by a healthy dose of corporate sweet-talk about wanting to be accountable and go the extra mile — with calibrated dash of Brussels jargon. Tang told POLITICO the company is “transitioning into the next phase of growth … powered and based on accountability.” He’s also meeting “stakeholders” to tell them they don’t want to just meet standards but “exceed them.” Read more from Clothilde Goujard, Antonia Zimmerman and Marianne Gros here.
HEADLINES
— Five parties accept illegal donations, exposing flaws in foreign-influence rules (Bureau of Investigative Journalism)
— China’s military is tapping into EU-funded research (POLITICO)
— Deux espions chinois priés de quitter la France, après la tentative de rapatriement forcé d’un ressortissant (Le Monde)
INFLUENCERS
NGO
Christian Cirhigiri has joined the International Center for Transitional Justice as Senior Program Expert. He was previously Policy Officer focusing on digital peacebuilding at Search for Common Ground.
FINANCE
Rebecca Christie, formerly the Europe correspondent at Reuters Breaking News, is now Senior Economist at the European Central Bank.
Anna Akhalkatsi is a new Country Director for the EU at the World Bank Group. She will lead dialogue with EU client countries and the EU institutions.
Christine Lynch is now Senior External Affairs Officer at the World Bank Group. She previously worked for BSA, The Software Alliance and IBM.
Saim Saeed, a POLITICO alum, is joining Bloomberg as a tax reporter. He was previously an associate director for FGS Global.
GOVERNMENT
Tim Wolters, former policy assistant at Housing Europe, has started as Housing Policy Officer at the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.
MEDIA & TECH
Niklas Lagergren will head the Association of Commercial Television and Video on Demand Services in Europe’s task force on intellectual property and competition policy from September.
Teresa Carlson and Maryam Mujica are joining global venture capital firm General Catalyst, respectively as a Catalyst Advisor and Head of Global Public Policy. Teresa Carlson worked for Amazon and Microsoft’s policy operations while Maryam was working in the U.S. State Department, White House National Security Council, and other tech companies, according to the company’s statement.
MOBILITY
After 25 years at Volkswagen, including 16 years as Head of the Group Representative Office in Brussels, Cristof-Sebastian Klitz has entered retirement.
CHEMICALS
Vincenzo Viola joins the European renewable ethanol association (ePure) as Advocacy & European Parliament Relations Senior Manager. He was previously at FEDIOL, the European oilseed crushers, vegetable oil refiners and bottlers association.
Aleksy Fichot, previously a consultant with Europtimum Conseil, joins ePure as Government Affairs Manager.
CITIES
Eurocities has promoted Policy Advisors Louise Coffineau and Thomas Lymes to Heads of Advocacy.
CONSULTING
Bain & Company’s Christophe De Vusser started as Worldwide Managing Partner, becoming the first European to take on this position.
Liliana Mateus Caraça is joining the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants as EU Public Affairs Manager. She was previously a Supervising Associate at EY.
Lucas Favresse started as Account Executive at Ketchum Brussels.
Angelika Love has been promoted to Leadership Consultant at Russell Reynolds Associates.
SUSTAINABILITY
The Carbon Capture and Storage Association has promoted Stefano Miriello to Head of EU External Affairs.
Thank you to: Bjarke Smith-Meyer, Aoife White, Edith Hancock, Clothilde GouŠejla Ahmatović, my editor Nathalie Weatherald, and Yellow Magic Orchestra.
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