After Brussels, life gets so much better

At least 39%of European Commissioners take up a job as a lobbyist after leaving their official roles, to cash in the knowledge and networks they acquired in office accumulated at the expense of the taxpayers.

The former fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg earned his home country a mention in a study by economics professor Roland Vaubel, who said former commissioners from Portugal, Austria, Bulgaria and Malta have the highest propensity to lobby Brussels on private companies’ behalf.

Having said that, Borg is so far the only former commissioner Malta has had. But whether health and consumer affairs Commissioner John Dalli follows his predecessor’s cue is yet to be seen.

Going by Vaubel’s interpretation, the prospect of the lobbyist afterlife may affect Commissioners’ decisions and voting behaviour while they are still at the Commission, and induce them to be more accommodating towards interest groups.

Former Commissioners like Joe Borg know where the money is after leaving Brussels. When his term finished in 2009, Borg started work for Fipra, a PR consultancy lobbying on public affairs.

And Borg even fits Vaubel’s commissioner-turned-lobbyist perfectly: according to his study, commissioners with a law degree were more likely to become lobbyists (48%), more likely to be nominated by a right wing government, and on average be aged 58 upon retirement.

Upon retirement, Borg also benefited from a three-year transitional allowance tagged at 40-65% of his €240,000 salary – a take-home allowance of €11,000 monthly. And then there is his pension, an annual €51,068 annually upon reaching 65.

“The probability that the ex-Commissioners become lobbyists depends significantly on their former policy brief,” Vaubel said.

“It is 100% if they have been responsible for competition policy, 89% for the internal market, 67% for economics and finance and 57% for agriculture, energy or industry. It is zero for ex-Commissioners who have been in charge of research, education, administrative affairs, health or multilinguism.”

So that means that Dalli’s chance of becoming a lobbying guru is already out of the picture. A return to politics may yet beckon.

However, a new Code of Conduct by the European Commission adopted in 2010 now prescribes an 18-month “cooling-off period” during which its retiring members are not supposed to lobby in their former policy field.

“Yet the Commission decides collectively. Each Commissioner is entitled to vote on all decisions taken by the Commission,” Vaubel points out. “The prospect of becoming a lobbyist may also affect his vote on issues outside his policy brief. The cooling-off period ought to cover all policy fields in which the Commission is active”.

And this seems to confirm Vaubel’s parting shot. Rules should not be set by those who later are to abide by them.

“If the rules are determined by the Commissioners, they are likely to be biased in their favour. They will not sufficiently restrict the scope for post-Commission lobbying. As a result, Commissioners give too much support to special interest groups, both before and after retiring from the Commission”.

Richard Vaubel is a Professor of Economics at the University of Mannheim, and a member of the academic advisory council to Germany’s federal economics ministry.