Brussels calls on Kroes for ‘banned lobby’ Uber | Inland
From leaked documents in the hands of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Prime Minister as European Commissioner for Digital Affairs on behalf of Uber lobbies contacted party, then traffic traffic Melanie Schultz van Haegen and Minister Henk Kamp (Economic).
That happened during her cooling off period. In order to avoid a conflict of interest, Kroes was not allowed to work for companies related to her portfolio in the first eighteen months after her departure from Brussels. Two of her recommendations to start working as an adviser at Uber earlier have even been explicitly banned by Brussels. After the cooling-off period, she immediately started working as a top advisor at the American taxi service.
The European Commission takes the matter seriously and has asked. “We have seen the coverage and are collecting information,” said one said. Brussels does not want to give any explanation about the content of the letter. “This is something between the European Commission and the former Vice-President.”
Kroes himself denies having worked “informally or formally” for Uber during the cooling off period. The VVD refers to its specially-paid government job as bringing startups to the Netherlands.
The issues for much international attention. PvdA MEP Paul Tang has announced that he will lodge an official complaint with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. In theory, Brussels can go to the European court to partially take away part of Kroes’ generous pension.
Kroes has often violated the Brussels code of conduct. In 2016 she received a commissioner’s redundancy pay despite tapping her income for 2015. The allowance has been recovered. In 2004, Kroes hadn’t begun to think she was a director of a company in the Bahamas. But according to Brussels, she could not ‘reasonably’ know that they were registered there. Kroes himself frankly acknowledged that something had gone wrong. She didn’t pay for the position and didn’t get it. She was reprimanded for the Bahama affair, but not punished.