Kroes ‘lobbied’ for Lockheed

21 October 2004

AMSTERDAM — Candidate commissioner Dutchwoman Neelie Kroes has confirmed she did not reveal to the incoming European Commission that she once lobbied for US defence contractor Lockheed Martin. Her critics charge she has too many ties to business to be an impartial Competition Commissioner.

She was not obliged to tell the EC about lobbying for Lockheed because it was “once off advice related to a specific project” seven years ago, her spokesperson said on Thursday.

The EC only asked candidate commissioners for information on management positions they held in companies and organisations.

She was paid by Lockheed — which manufactures planes and missiles for the US military — for the work she did and this payment was recorded in her tax returns, the spokesperson told NOS.

Kroes has indicated she is willing not to involve herself with any competition cases relating to Lockheed or a string of other international companies she has been involved with in her long business career.

Any cases in which she might have a connection with one of the involved parties will be dealt with by a fellow commissioner, she said.

The Dutchwoman confirmed her past link with Lockheed after American financial newspaper Wall Street Journal ran the story.

Her spokesperson accused the newspaper of running a vendetta against her and previous EC Competition Commissioners because it is ideologically opposed to political interference in free trade.

Kroes and the other candidate commissioners will take up their new posts in the European Commission on 1 November after their appointments have been rubberstamped by the European Parliament on 27 October.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Dutch news, Neelie Kroes