France’s former EU commissioner, Thierry Breton, promised he would “behave” if cleared to take on a paid advisory role with Bank of America, several weeks after he dramatically resigned from the EU’s executive body, internal emails show.
As a former commissioner, Mr Breton is subject to a two-year “cooling off” period where he is restricted from lobbying or other work that could create a damaging perception of a revolving door between the European Commission and the private sector.
Mr Breton, former commissioner for the internal market, had frequently clashed with Ursula von der Leyen, who heads the EU’s executive arm.
He had initially been nominated by French president Emmanuel Macron for a second five-year term. However, he resigned just as Ms von der Leyen was preparing to announce the portfolios of the new team of 26 EU commissioners last September.
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In his resignation letter, Mr Breton accused Ms von der Leyen of trying to push him out, by offering France “an allegedly more influential portfolio” if an alternative commissioner were nominated.
The letter criticised the “questionable governance” of the commission under Ms von der Leyen. In his place Mr Macron put forward Stéphane Séjourné, a close ally, as France’s commissioner.
Internal correspondence shows how, a month after resigning, Mr Breton wrote to the commission’s top civil servant to seek clearance to take up an advisory role with a US banking giant.
“I have the honour to inform you of my intention to engage in a light – non executive – co-operation with Bank of America,” he told Ilze Juhansone, secretary general of the commission.
“Of course, I intend to behave, in this three-days-a-year commitment.”
Mr Breton said the role would not involve any lobbying for the bank or the disclosure of confidential information from his time in the political leadership of the commission.
He said he had been invited to join the bank’s global advisory council. This group was made up of “15 leading business, academic and public policy leaders who share insights on emerging global trends and issues”, he said.
Mr Breton said other members of the advisory board were former finance and foreign ministers, central bank governors and business executives.
In a letter dated November 25th last year, Mr Breton was told that Ms von der Leyen had asked the commission’s independent ethics committee to review whether his new role complied with anti-lobbying rules, given the “potential link” to his old brief overseeing industrial policy.
Under these rules Mr Breton is restricted from taking up any job that involves lobbying his old colleagues in the commission until September next year.
In a decision on December 12th, the ethics committee said the advisory board role would not breach work restrictions put on former EU commissioners.
However, the committee said it was “essential” to stress the obligations on Mr Breton not to disclose confidential information from his previous position.
Ms Juhansone wrote to Mr Breton in January to let him know he had been cleared to take up the advisory role.
Before becoming France’s EU commissioner back in 2019, Mr Breton had been the chief executive of tech company Atos. He previously ran France Telecom and served as French economy minister between 2005 and 2007.
The correspondence between Mr Breton and the commission was released to The Irish Times under freedom of information rules.
Ireland’s former EU commissioner, Phil Hogan, had to stop consultancy work for international law firm DLA Piper during his two-year “cooling off” period after resigning as trade commissioner.
The commission’s ethics committee had warned the work might fall foul of rules guarding against lobbying, given the firm specialised in trade.
