EU commission attacked for 'failing to act' on expert groups

Publication date: 
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Author: 
Martin Banks
Media title: 
TheParliament.com

A cross-party group of MEPs have attacked the commission's "failure" to act against the industry "dominance" of many of its advisory bodies, the so-called expert groups.

Excerpt: 

ALTER-EU[,] has proposed clear common criteria that all commission departments should follow prohibiting any interest category, including business, unions, NGOs or others, from having a majority in any group. Its spokesman said, "As parliamentary pressure is also growing over the revolving doors cases involving ex-commissioners, and the resulting conflicts of interest, perhaps the time has come when the commission will finally recognise the need to act to show that it is an independent institution, not the just the tool of corporate influence."