A senior European Commission official, Gert Jan Koopman, has been found to own a luxury hotel in Bali, Indonesia, with his family, but was under no obligation to declare it to the institution, Politico reports.
In 2009, the Dutch official Koopman reportedly bought the Munduk Moding Plantation Nature Resort & Spa hotel, which at the time had just five rooms. The establishment was then transformed into a luxury destination, renowned for its infinity pool.
The EU executive requires all its employees to disclose their “outside activities”, in order to detect possible conflicts of interest. But according to the Commission, owning a hotel is not considered a declarable activity.
"Being an owner is not considered an outside activity as it doesn’t imply ‘doing something’ (an activity) in the sense of investing an amount of time that might have an impact on the performance of duties at work," a Commission spokesperson clarified.
Designed to fail?
Under European Commission rules, staff do not have to declare their personal financial interests but must disclose potential or existing conflicts of interest. However, the penalty that one might face for non-compliance are unclear.
“There needs to be much higher financial disclosure across the board to bring it into line with best practices and to mitigate any potential conflicts of interest,” Nick Aiossa, deputy director of Transparency International in Brussels, told Politico. Aiossa described the institution's transparency regulations as a "broken system".
Jan Gert Koopman heads the European Commission’s DG NEAR, the unit responsible for EU enlargement negotiations. His remuneration amounts to €17,700 net per month, according to Politico.
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The revelations about the senior official coincide with the European Commission’s announcement of a new ethics body that is to draw up new minimum rules common to all European institutions and their staff. The body will not have powers of investigation or sanction.
The latest Eurobarometer showed that 60% of EU citizens are not satisfied with the EU's efforts to tackle corruption, a 12% increase from four years ago.
