In response to a request from the current EC president, Jean-Claude Juncker, who in September asked for an opinion to be issued on his predecessor’s nomination as non-executive president of Goldman Sachs International, the ethics committee said that Durão Barroso “did not show the good sense that could be expected of someone who had the role of president for so many years,” but “did not breach his duty of integrity and discretion.”
The news on 8 July of Barroso’s appointment as president of Goldman Sachs International, the bank’s UK-based arm, caused a wave of indignation, with several petitions organised by EU citizens and even European Commission employees.
The ethics committee noted the commitment made by Durão Barroso not to take on a role of “representative of interests” (lobbyist) for Goldman Sachs, considering that it could breach the duty of integrity and discretion imposed by the Treaty.
Goldman Sachs was among the leading banks trading and reselling risky US mortgage debt, creating paper assets whose massive loss of value ultimately caused the financial crash and an unprecedented global recession.
France’s president, François Hollande, described Barroso’s move as “morally unacceptable”.
Despite this ruling, the European justice ombudsman decided on Monday to press ahead with an inquiry into the appointment of Durão Barroso as a director of Goldman Sachs bank, in a display of dissatisfaction with the earlier opinion by the European Commission ethics committee.